Ironic
by Caderyn
Summary: MA,SK. Max&Alec, Syl&Krit in the party, planning their heist. What happens after the siege on TC. Max in heat? Logan finding the cure? What about Alec? And what is White up to?
1. Prologue

A/N: This is my second DA fic. It's Max's thoughts on the day Logan found the cure. 

Pairing: M/A (what else?)

Disclaimer: with DA gone, can Cameron & Eglee still be able to sue me? Well, DA is their creation and I'm just someone who's trying to keep it alive through fanfiction.

**IRONIC**

If there's one thing I learned from my twenty-one years of existence is that life's an irony. 

It's ironic that the people who spent millions of dollars to 'create' me and my genetically-modified 'freaks' of a family are now hunting us down, intending to annihilate us. They taught us the finest arts of self-preservation our entire lives and now they expect us to just roll over and die?

It's ironic that these genetically-engineered 'killing machines', who could take down human soldiers by the dozens, were actually 'conquered' by the love of a rich boy in a wheelchair, an innocent teenage girl, and a compassionate blind woman. Of course none of these 'love stories' turned up well, to say the least. Two of these people are now dead – 'collateral damage' as they would say – and the third is living on the constant threat of death that sometimes I feel like love just isn't worth it.

It's ironic that after my endless longing for a 'family' ever since I got out of Manticore, I actually turned my back on them upon the first sign of trouble. God, I actually killed Ben because I couldn't carry him... I gave up Brin because she was sick... I let Tinga die after I promised her son that I'd bring her back... and I even sent Zack away because his brain was a bit messed up... I still don't know if I made the right decision there, but I hope he got at least a shot at a nice decent life...

It's ironic that sometimes you find family in the people you least expect. Who would have thought that the most treasured people in my life would be an ordinary – but definitely one of a kind – lesbian; a spaced-out 'dude' who actually once sought to expose 'my kind'; a dog 'nomaly' who I grew up thinking as 'monsters' that would eat you up if you were bad; and a Manticore-raised X5 who didn't seem to care about anything but himself...

Funny, isn't it, how one small word could cover so much?

But ironic, above all, is when you could finally be with the so-called 'love of your life', you realised that the guy you truly love had been right under your nose all this time...

Yes, Logan finally found the cure today. I'm cured! We're cured! But somehow I don't feel like jumping in joy (or jumping him, for that matter). I mean, you'd think – after all that waiting – that we'd get right down to business the second he stuck that needle in my arm, but all I could feel was a total … nothing. 

Well, that's not completely true. The second Logan said "I found the cure", Alec's face came to mind. I was so irritated by it that an unconscious pout formed on my mouth. Logan thought that I no longer want the cure. I had to reassure him that finding the cure was like the most joyous occasion of my adult life. How he got it, I don't know. Probably some more of his 'resources' down the drain... 

No!! Not down the drain! The cure is not useless. Logan and I can touch now. Still, Alec's annoyingly beautiful face appeared again.

God, did I just describe Alec as beautiful? The problem is, things aren't as what they used to be. The siege has been going on for six months and I haven't seen Logan for five (until our latest injection meeting that is). Alec, on the other hand, has been on my side since day one. I definitely thought that he'd split as soon as he found a crack on the barricades. But he stayed.

His presence went from being uncalled-for to being familiar. From being familiar to being expected. From being expected to being relied on. And from being relied on to being cherished. Who the hell would have thought? 

Me actually 'like' spending time with Alec? Me actually like the way he can get on my nerves and make me smile all in one go? Me actually like waking up to his tousled blonde hair and cute smirk, when he'd pick me up to get breakfast? Me actually like the way he graciously moves when we spar? Me actually like the way he'd call me 'Maxie'?

This is just perfect! The day I find out that Logan and I can finally be together, I also realise that I'm in love with Alec…

Isn't that just ironic? Now what the hell am I supposed to do now??

A/N: Please review!! I know I'm not the most excellent writer, so there's gotta be something you could say.


	2. Maxie

Summary: Logan's going to get the cure. But why isn't Max that ecstatic? What happens after they were besieged in TC.

A/N: Ok, this is what happens _before_ the prologue. I was actually planning for IRONIC to be a standalone, but some people told me to continue it. So here I go. This chapter is set two months after the siege began and four months before the prologue. 

Dedication: To all those who told me to continue with the story. Reviews make a writer's world.

**Chapter 1: Maxie**

It's been two months since the siege on Terminal City begins and Max doesn't see the possibility of it ending anytime soon. It frustrates her that her family is reduced to this. Sure, TC isn't as bad as when it was first occupied. The residential areas have been fixed and some even have running – albeit, slightly chemically-hazardous – water. Food has been smuggled from an underground tunnel that provides very limited access to the outside world. And some transgenics have even set up a kind of 'bar' that surprisingly mimics Crash in appearance (filthy, but homely – in a very poor bid at irony, the transhumans have christened it 'The Barcode'). But Max knows that this isn't the freedom that they deserved.

What's worse is the fact that all ordinaries had to be evacuated from the area, two weeks into the siege, because of the danger the chemicals pose to their health. Logan stayed for three weeks before becoming violently ill.

After that, Logan made several successful attempts to visit them through the food tunnel. But, after one food smuggling operation went to hell, Max could not risk exposure by letting Logan through.

So she had forbidden Logan to ever come again. She still remembers their last goodbye.

Max was trying very hard not to cry. Normally, this would not have been too difficult since a transgenic is trained never to cry, but this was Logan. She was about to say goodbye to the love of her life, not knowing when – and if – she would ever see him again. Logan looked just as bad as he brought up one hand to caress the air above her cheek...

That was Max's last memory of him.

She has not seen him since and the occasional Eyes Only broadcasts have not done much to quell her longing. She has been watching TV a lot, just waiting for a chance to hear his voice. The TV/phone link that they managed to set up at TC before the siege has a great chance of being discovered. She can't risk it.

"Hey Maxie, glaring at the TV won't get us out of this hellhole, you know."

When Max doesn't reply, the intruder adds, "Face it Maxie, you're stuck here with me. Why not make it more pleasant by giving in to your urges to jump me?"

Max comes out of her trance. She has been staring at the TV (connection courtesy of the ever resourceful Dix) where it's shown how the military is considering to drop a gas bomb, which, they hope, will poison the 'mutants' to death. However, there's still the worry that the gas will also kill humans who reside within the vicinity. Right now, they are attempting to evacuate residents in the proximity and gathering info on whether or not this specific type of gas will affect the transgenics at all.

"They're going to gas us out." Max doesn't need to look up to see who she's talking to. There are only a few people who call her Maxie in TC and, out of those, only one has an ego-inspired humor.

"Well, not the response I was looking for…" Alec stares at Max. She has this glazed look on her face that appeared pretty much ever since they got stuck in TC. Alec knows that Max feels responsible for their current situation. After all, if it weren't for her highly inspirational speech that night, most of them would have probably been wondering around Canada – being hunted and murdered by bears, Canadians, and White – instead of besieged in the most God-forsaken place in Seattle – being hunted and murdered by the mob, the military, and White. Alec thinks his purpose is to provide some light-hearted annoyance and, hence, distraction for Max. That's why his approach to her has always been sardonic. Unfortunately, most of the time, Her Pouty One fails to appreciate his humor, leaving Alec at the receiving end of some painful butt-kicking.

"And don't call me Maxie."

_Aah__, so she did notice... Alec has started calling her that when two of Max's siblings, Syl and Krit, joined their lovely establishment two weeks ago. She was ecstatic to have them there with her and Alec was just happy that Max stopped her constant moping over Logan to smile, once in a while. He has been calling her Maxie because he knows it's something special that Max's siblings get to do. And after he got out of Manticore, she and Joshua had been his only real 'family' and Alec can only hope that she feels the same about him. Plus, he just likes to irritate her. Pissed Max is SO MUCH more fun than mopey Max._

Meanwhile…

_He called me Maxie. He reminds me so much of __Ben__ when he does that. Max doesn't know why, but she doesn't want Alec to call her that. It's just something special that her siblings get to do, and somehow, she doesn't want to think of Alec as her sibling. He's more of like an annoying distant cousin, thrice removed. Plus he always has this cocky tone to his voice that can just rattle her. Speaking of His Cockiness, Max realizes that he just said something to her._

"What?"

"See, I knew you weren't gonna listen to me unless I call you Maxie. I said, 'MAAAXXX, here are the plans for tonight's heist. You said you wanted to go over them with me again today.'" Alec slowly pronounces each word, followed by his signature smirk. He spreads the blueprint across the desk and adds under his breath, "Not like the previous ten times we went over it hadn't been fun."

Max looks at the X5 before her. Somehow there's something different about him today. He looks the same, as much as she can tell. Tousled hair, cocky smirk, jeans, leather jacket. Nothing different there. He just … SMELLS a bit different. _Probably new cologne or something. Max decides to ignore it._

"We have to make sure that we completely understand the plan. Memorize every escape route. This is going to be the first time that we go out there ever since the siege begins."

A week ago, Max had been informed that funds for the food and weapon smugglers were running out. So she decided to pull a heist big enough to keep them on their feet for a couple of months, but simple enough so that they could pull it off without White smelling anything. A few days later, Alec came up with the perfect plan. He'd found Japanese clients willing to pay big bucks for some kind of top-of-the-line software. It's supposed to be recently developed by the military and is being used against (surprise!) the mutant inhabitants of TC. So the plan's simple: break in a highly-guarded military compound, steal some software from a few geeks, and get out. It'd be the last thing that they'd expect. It'd be perfect.

"I know Max. We're X5s and, unless there's something horribly faulty in your cocktail, I'm pretty sure that both of us can memorize the entire plan the first five seconds we looked at it."

"I just have this feeling that something terribly wrong is going to happen. Why can't we take Syl and Krit with us?"

"I told you, this is a two-man job. The less people we have out there, the better."

"I can't help feeling that something's going down on TC while we're gone. What if they decide to drop that gas bomb while we're gone? I mean I think they've already tried some kind of a heat bomb or something because it's been a bit too hot in here lately." Max wipes the perspiration forming on her forehead. It seems like the military is trying to boil them out. So far though, she's the only one who's been feeling especially uncomfortable.

"Being paranoid, aren't we, Maxie?"

"I told you not to call…"

"Besides, if anything did happen, Syl and Krit will be here to take care of the whole thing. Now, can we get down to business? I have places to be and very nice ladies to entertain."

"God, you're such a pig." But Max does start focusing on the plan, "So we're coming in from here…"

A/N: What do you think? I'm just trying to set the scene on this one. I got the idea of a gas bomb from the current war on Iraq. How 'bout that, huh? I've been reading the paper and guess what. America actually has an 'E-bomb'! Once detonated, will trigger "large electromagnetic pulse, disabling electronic and electrical devices within range". Just thought I'd share that with you. I suppose it's not completely new since they already have something like that on Ocean's Eleven. Great movie, I'd recommend it.


	3. Hot Duct

Summary: Something always goes wrong in Max & Alec's heists. What could it possibly be this time? *nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink*

Pairing: Somebody shoot me if I ever write an M/L!

Rating: Someone mentioned how it's disappointing that this story's a PG. Well, I'm now increasing it to PG-13. Not a vast increase, but I'm still very young myself (hey, 18 is still a very tender age!) 

Disclaimer: Dark Angel's axed, so should it matter? Well, I certainly don't own it coz otherwise it won't be axed and Logan would probably shipped off somewhere to fight polar bears with his computer and latex gloves! Hahaha... I just got this funny mental picture.

A/N: I put characters' thoughts in italics. I hope I make it pretty clear who's thinking what. I'm actually having fun writing this! So yeah, kudos to those people who told me to continue!

**Chapter Two: Hot Duct**

"I told you something would go wrong, didn't I?!?"

For someone who's whispering (inaudible to ordinaries), Max's voice still manages to come out ear-piercing and irritated. Of course, they ARE confined to a space only big enough for, oh, say… A MIDGET! So Alec's eardrums should naturally suffer as a consequence.

The plan was proceeding flawlessly. They came in... no alarm. They broke through the computer center... Well, lots of screaming, but they silenced that when they knocked the living daylights out of the skinny geeks who 'guarded' the software before any of the computer whiz got the chance to notify the more 'beefy' guards. A little typing here, a little fidgeting there, Max could not believe that everything was going so well... 

But of course, once a person is bold enough to make that statement, something will usually go terribly wrong. Alec, being the screw up that he was (well, Max thinks so anyway), forgot about the barrier alarm trigger, put up to protect the software. 

Well, Max thought that he'd forgotten. The truth is, even though he's a first-grade transgenic, Alec is no computer expert. He was simply not aware about the barrier thingy. Afterwards, he bitterly reminds himself that LOGAN would have definitely known about it.  But, on the other hand, the great Eyes Only does not possess the expertise – or the physique – to break into that lovely-guarded compound. 

Anyway, other perfectly conscious geeks, who resided in ANOTHER computer room in some OTHER part of the facility, detected the break-in and hollered for several of those beefy guards. 

Hence, Max and Alec were left to find the nearest immediate hiding place... which just happened to be a three-foot-high, three-foot-wide air duct, suspended above the room. As far as Max can tell, the ordinaries are searching IN and AROUND the facility. They would never think to search around the room. The two transgenics would be perfectly undetected if they could be perfectly still... which Alec thinks would be really hard if Max won't stop fidgeting and bitching. 

"Maxie, I know it's pretty hard to restrain from rubbing your body all over mine, but can you hold yourself back a notch? After all, we can always continue this later when we have, uh, more room for performance." Alec ends it with his signature cocky grin. _Hah, this is going to be fun!_

Max responds by punching him on the ribs, "You are such an asshole! This is all your fault! I KNEW you're going to screw up something. Didn't I tell you that they'd probably have some kind of protection installed around the software?!"

"Well, next time I'd like to see you try hacking into a highly-guarded military program, miss my-boyfriend-is-the-best-computer-geek-in-the-world-so-I'm-very-much-enlightened-with-his-expertise. Now will you shut up! They're going to hear us!" Alec shot back in a similarly inaudible whisper.

Max resists from killing her partner-in-crime by fuming silently. She feels that steam is literally coming out of her ears. _It's getting a bit hot in here!_

The truth is Max is incredibly bitchy because she's very uncomfortable with her current position. She is lying on top of Alec with her chest pressed up completely against his. Her back is arched towards the duct's ceiling as she tries to keep as much distance as possible between her body and Alec's. She never thought that she's claustrophobic, but she is feeling increasingly hot and is starting to hyperventilate. She just wants to lash out at Alec because his emanating body heat is making her even hotter. _I know that the X5s are supposed to have higher body temperature, but this is ridiculous! I just want to take my clothes off! Uh, let's not go there…_

Speaking of hot, Max is starting to become aware of how nice and fit Alec's body is beneath her. It's lean, but very muscled. Max wonders how good it'll feel to run her hands all over his torso... _Oh God, what the hell am I thinking? Ok, keep your hands to the side. Do not let them touch __Alec__'s, uh, 'lean' body._

Max shifts slightly and her effort results in bringing her face closer to Alec's. They are basically lying face to face now, inches apart. But Alec's eyes are closed. It annoys Max that he's probably enjoying their current predicament. He has this adorably annoying smile on his lips. She starts to notice how perfect his jaw is. It's just pleasantly square (not too strong but not too weak) with perfectly-defined cheekbones. Well, his face is just basically perfect, really. Big eyes, perfect straight nose, full lips with an ever-present smirk, SEXY chin dimple… Max imagines how good it'll feel to brush her hot cheeks against his... _What the hell am I thinking? It's the close space. Just look away. Stare at something else besides his 'perfect' face!_

Max pulls her head down and rests it against his chest. She can hear his heartbeat. _Hmm, his heartbeat has this pleasant rhythm. It's SO SEXY… And his breath! It feels sooo nice blowing against my hair…_

"You smell different, Max."

_ Hmm, his heart just sped up. Now why would that turn me on?_

"Huh?" Max looks straight at Alec. His eyes are staring at her with this confused look. _Oh, that is so cute! And his lips! They look so moist I just want to… cover them… with something! Max licks her lips._

"There's something different about you. You smell… really nice." Alec looks at the woman lying on top of him. _Okay, she looks a bit flushed and she's breathing really hard. Why do her lips look so much more swollen and, uh, 'tempting' than usual? And that glint in her eyes! I know that __Max__ has always been nice to look at, but I seriously can not think of a single girl more appealing than her right now. And, God help me, her smell is intoxicating!  If I didn't know better, I'd say she's in…_

But he doesn't get to finish his thoughts as a pair of very heated lips close over his. 

Alec's first instinct is to kiss her back. Despite the suddenness of the whole thing, the kiss is actually very soft and gentle. Alec never thought that a pair of lips that are so swollen and hot could ever be so soft. He's just about to deepen the kiss when she pulls back.

Max looks down at him with confusion. _Oh God, what the hell did I just do?_

But Alec isn't going to let her leave him like this. Before neither of them has a chance to think about the gravity of this act, Alec puts one hand behind her neck and pulls her down toward him.

This time the kiss is much more passionate. Alec can immediately feel her tongue pushing through his mouth and he allows her access. Their tongues battle and Alec can't remember tasting anything better. She tastes just like champagne-dipped strawberries, though the only time he ever tasted those was after he managed to snag a bottle of pre-pulse goodness from Log-boy's collection. _You know, for someone who's always complaining about how oppressed the little people are, _Logan___ has way too many specially-saved-pre-pulse bottles... Well, anyway, the point was, __Max__ tastes MUCH BETTER than the Log's finest pre-pulse liquor._

Max, meanwhile, can't think of any logical reason on why she shouldn't be doing this. She starts to nibble on his lips. Alec's muffled groan turns Max on so much that she deepens the kiss by bringing down her hands from his hair (very soft hair, she notices) to cup his cheeks.

_I can't believe I'm lying here, in an air duct, making out with __Alec__, out of all people!! __Alec__, whose presence I normally try to keep at a minimum! __Alec__, whose big mouth can make me want to pull my hair out! __Alec__, whose cockiness is as notorious as his womanizing! If I didn't know better, I'd say I'm in…_

"Max… you're… in… heat…" Alec is now planting small kisses across her cheek and down her jaw.

"I know." Max responds by nibbling his ear.

"Then… don't you think… that we shouldn't… be doing this?" He is now trailing kisses down her neck.

"I don't care." _To hell with what I know about __Alec__! I know I want him and my stupid rational self can't to do anything to stop me. Besides, you know what they say about men with big mouths… _

She puts her hands on his hair and brings his head up so that she can look him straight in the eye.

Suddenly, a very loud siren blares through the building and pierces painfully through the transgenics' overly sensitive hearings, distracting them from continuing further. It seems that the ordinaries have detected intruders in the South entrance and are directing all military personnel toward that area.

"Uh, that's probably our, uh, back-up. I told Mole to create a distraction if we didn't get out in precisely thirty minutes." Alec looks awkwardly at Max. They are still locked in an embrace with only a few inches separating their faces. Alec's hands are still placed under her shirt on her waist, while hers are tangled in his hair.

Max doesn't know whether to feel relieved or disappointed at the distraction. So she mumbles, "Right, uh, we better get out of here. You know, before they come back here." Then she adds under her breath (even though she's sure Alec can hear it), "And before I do something completely crazy."

She begins to untangle herself from Alec; a pretty difficult task if one wished to do it without creating much noise. After much shuffling and rustling and grunting, Max manages to get on her hands and knees. She starts to crawl through the duct.

Alec stares at her progressing figure and proceeds to move along behind her. He still feels incredibly turn on and it's definitely not helping that he's now staring at her ass. He knows that she's also still feeling similar urges to jump him. Neither of them can help it. X5s are all juiced up with feline DNA. So when a female goes into heat, not even the strongest male can resist her radiating pheromones. Similarly, no female can resist the pressing urge to hump any available member of the male species.

_But then again, this is __Max__. Miss I'm-such-an-expert-at-depriving-myself-of-any-fun. She's had much practice in that, what with the virus and the Log-boy and all. She's just going to brush this off as a horrible mistake. She won't ever come near me again. She's not…_

Suddenly, Max looks back at him with a mischievous grin that Alec has never seen directed at him (or anyone, for that matter), "oh, and Alec?"

"Yeah?" 

"We WILL continue this." 

_Yes, maam! Huh, 'guess she's a red-blooded X5 after all._

A/N: Wow, what bright reviewers I have!! Most of you are able to predict that Max's going into heat!  Little gold star stickers for you all! Uh, the romantic scenes are the hardest to write. I just kept on bursting to giggles! So tell me if they sound stupid, 'k?

Also, as you probably can tell, I'm no expert at computers. I have no idea how one would steal a software and if there's such thing as an 'alarm-barrier-trigger-thingy'. Basically it's like a program that will activate the alarm if someone tried to steal the software. For all I'm concerned, my computer's only function is for typing and playing freecell.

Alright, gimme your opinions/thoughts/queries/advice!! Reviews make my day and make me want to write more! What do you think will/should happen?


	4. Kinky?

Summary: Ok, so Max's in heat and Alec's around. What are they gonna do now?

Pairing: M/A. They have the best chemistry!

Rating: PG-13. *blushes* I can't write something too naughty!

Disclaimer: Let's see, I obviously don't own DA coz it's been cancelled. But if I did, then I'd make a spin-off of 'Logan Cale, Eyes Only, Cyber-geek extraordinaire'. Scaring the evil dudes with an unbelievable amount of facial hair, his specially overused 'be careful' mantra, and endless amount of fake passports (How DO he get those anyway? Probably got an agent somewhere who pickpockets it from poor vulnerable tourists?). Okay, I know that this is the disclaimer and it can't be very long, but do you think I should feature Logan in the story? You know, sans Max? Coz, I really don't mind the guy, as long as Max's not in the same frame as him. The combination of the two of them is just plain tiring.

A/N: I did it!! I finally updated!! I was kinda busy during the week so I didn't get a chance to type. Yeah, I'm not one of those excellent writers who finish typing their stories before posting them. I just think it makes me flexible for suggestions. So yeah, suggest away! Thank you for all the wonderful reviews btw! I can't believe no one told me that the love scene was just plain corny and laughable. I was so worried about that. Well, 'hope y'all enjoy this one!

**Chapter 3: Kinky?!?**

Max and Alec manage to get out of the facility without a hitch. From there, they need to stop by the docks to hand over the software to some very nice Japanese tycoons in exchange for what was once Max and Alec's year's worth of pay (yeah, if they could actually deliver every single package that Normal 'bip bip bipped' at them!). They actually blur all the way toward the docks to avoid detection and distractions to do, um, something else (like groping each other on top of that very appealing parked car) that might lead to detection on their way over. 

Throughout the whole deal, Max looks overly fidgety. She almost spoils the deal when she attempts to jump one of the younger-looking Japanese businessmen. Good thing Alec's there to peel her off the confused-looking man before any of her saliva actually ruins the nice man's Armani. The tycoon's only response is to say in broken English, "you are welcome, very nice woman," before proceeding to walk away with his bewildered-looking colleague. Alec's super sensitive hearing catches the other man saying in Japanese, "when did the Americans become as 'grabby' as the French?"  (Or at least he thinks that what he said. Alec only learned basic Japanese for that mission in Kyoto a few years back. So for all he knows, 'grabby' could also mean 'touchy', 'arrogant', or 'pleasant').

Alec, though, doesn't have much time to think about concise Japanese translations. Max, realising that there is a far 'superior' male specimen in front of her, has plastered herself across Alec's front. She is now playfully licking his jaw while her hands are running up and down his torso. _Hmm, he tastes so good…Why the hell haven't we done this before? His body just feels so nice and cool against my hot hands… Now if I can just take off this thing that's separating our skins... _Max pulls the hems of his shirt out of the waistband of his pants and runs her hands across the rippled skin of his torso. Alec can feel some parts of his body tightening in response.

_Oh God, __Max__ smells incredible… __Max__! This is __Max__! Remember __Max__? You know, the hot little firecracker who takes great pleasure in inflicting great amount pain on you… Ok, that just turns me on even more.  But no, I can't do this with __Max__! _

Max moves her tongue across his jaw to the outer edge of his mouth, but not quite touching his lips.

_Ok, why can't I do this __Max__? Uh, there's the, uh, apparent (albeit, consistently inconsistent) hatred towards me; the, uh, virus-inhibited-not-like-that boyfriend (who she can't get on with anyway for fear of death on the part of the 'boyfriend'); and uh, the fact that she's like my sis… ok, what is she doing, teasing me with the licking?? She's going to kill a guy with too much foreplay! Alec smiles lustfully at her before bringing his lips crashing down on hers._

The kiss is immediately deep, fast, and passionate. Max groans as her tongue finds Alec's. He brings one hand to caress her flushed cheeks, while the other tangles itself in her hair, pulling her closer. Max responds by encircling her hands around his neck, becoming even more aroused (if that's even possible!) when she feels his barcode.

_It's like we're made to do this. Well, Manticore did something right when they paired us together. Now, why the hell did I resist? I think I despised him? Yeah, and there was this other guy. Who I love? Now what was his name? Oh God, who cares, this feels so right! Now if I could just get __Alec__'s shirt off…_

Max wraps her legs around his waist to give herself leverage to deepen the kiss and starts to pull at his collar, just below his barcode, attempting to pull his shirt over his head. Alec supports her weight by moving his hands to cup her buttocks.

_I can't believe how amazing this feels. Every part of her body just fits perfectly against mine.  And the kiss! It's not just the warmth, and the softness, and the sweetness… ah hell, let's just face it. It's perfect! It's like we're consuming each other... And I'm feeling dizzy. It's that light-headed feeling that you get before you black out. It's strangely calming. I've never felt dizzy with any of the other girls…. Then again, none of them was a female X5 who holds a record for holding her breath._

Alec needs to take in air. So with great reluctance, he removes his lips from Max's. Her grunt of objection is immediately replaced by a satisfied groan when Alec starts to kiss her neck.

_Hmm, __Alec__ is REALLY good at this. I can see why he's so cocky about it. Maybe it's an X5 thing. I've never been with another X5. Maybe I should try it. If __Alec__ couldn't satisfy me (which I highly doubt considering that apparent bulge in his pants, but IF he couldn't), there are dozens of others in TC that I can get my hands on…_

_Damn! TC! We're supposed to be back by now! I can't risk Mole endangering others by sending a search party for us._

Max pulls Alec's head up so that they're face-to-face. She looks him straight in the eye, gives him a tempting smile, and slides her legs down from around his body. Alec has this confused look, with ridges appearing on his forehead and a pout forming in his mouth, which Max thinks is irresistibly cute. Before Alec can say anything though, Max joins one of her hands with his and starts to pull him away.

"Come on, we've got to go back before Mole sends out people to look for us." Then she adds with a cocky smirk that's usually exhibited by her current make-out buddy, "besides we'll have more *privacy* in your place."

_Hell, yeah! I can't wait to get back to TC, where we can strip into our naked goodness and then I can run my hands all over your…_

_Oh, crap. TC equals transgenic central, which equals other feline-charged X5s who'll jump, kick, beat, bite – and several other unpleasant memories I rather not recall – all over each other to hump the overflowing source of pheromones. Crap, crap, crap. This ain't gonna be pretty. _

Alec halts to a stop. "Max, I don't think we should go back to TC."

"What? Why?" Her head snaps back impatiently.

"Because of the other X5s." 

"So?" She steps toward Alec, her eyes locked into his.

"Haven't you ever been around other X5s while you're in heat?" She stands in front of Alec, pressing her body against his, hands gripping his shoulders.

"Well, up until last year, my brothers were the only X5s out here. I've never slept with any of them, if that's what you're asking. But I guess it would be kind of _kinky_…" She starts to lick his neck, moving up to the side of his lip.

_Kinky?!? __Max__ thinks sleeping with Zack or Krit would be kinky?!? Ok, she's really lost it. "No, Max, your pheromones. When you're in heat, you release pheromones that the male X5s can't resist. You'll drive them crazy. They'll do anything to, uh, __mate, with you. Are you getting what I'm saying here? A compound full of X5s, one female in heat, things are gonna get ugly."_

Max takes a step back, staring confusedly at Alec. "My heat. It's affecting you too?" It's more of a statement than a question, really, so Alec just nods. Max looks at the ground, not saying anything. She seems to be contemplating something.

_Oh. She didn't know that I'm affected by this too. What then, does she really think that I'm the kind of guy who would take advantage of her like that? Ok, she probably does, given your rather colorful sexual adventures… but seriously?! I never care for any of those girls I slept with! As far as I'm concerned, they were just sex. But Max… well, she's different. Call me crazy, but I actually care about Her Bitchiness. I can't do this with __Max__! She'll hate me if we go through with this!_

"Fine, we can just look for a place around here then," the cocky – and very much aroused – Max is back. She gives Alec one of her alluring – but highly uncharacteristic – smiles and urgently plants her lips on his.

_Damn, she's kissing me again. Now why can't I do this? __Right__, __Max__. You care about __Max__ and if you do this, she is going to hate you. No matter how good she feels or how irresistible she smells, you have to stop this._

Alec puts both hands on her shoulders and pushes her back, much to the objection of Max, who's groaning in protest.

"Alec, what the hell are you doing?!!" Anger flashes through her eyes, along with impatience and desire.

"Max, do you realise how crazy this is? It's me, Alec! Your annoying – yet albeit, lovable – sidekick whose ass you'd rather normally kick than, uh, 'ride'. We can't do this! This isn't us. You don't really want this." Alec really has to fight to say each word. Even at arms' length, her smell threatens to challenge his resolve.

"Yes, I do. I really do. In fact I can't think of anything I'd rather do right now." Max is getting really fidgety right now. She tries to put both of her hands on his face.

"I know…" and Alec kind of gets lost for a while, caressing Max's face, which is only inches from his. Both of them can feel the emanating heat in the very tiny space between their faces. Fortunately (or unfortunately!), before they can engage themselves in another hot and heavy make-out session, Alec manages to get his head back and snaps out of his trance, "…But, uh, neither of us can think straight right now. The pheromones are driving us crazy. Trust me Max, you don't want to do this." Alec has to hold his head back to stop himself from inhaling her scent.

"Oh, come on Alec, I know you want to. God knows you've suggested to me dozens of times before. It's time to make good on your word." Max tries to kiss him again but Alec holds her back. It's not an easy job since an X5 in heat seems to possess extra strength. Plus there's the fact that Alec's feeling a very strong urge to just ravage her right there. _No, don't think with your little soldier. Use your head, 494!_

"Max, you have no idea how much I want this. But it's different with you."

"Why?!? Why the hell is it different?!? I thought your mission in life is to screw as many women as possible. Well, here I am. What are you waiting for?!?" Max is shouting now. She feels a suffocating sense of desperation at the thought that she's not getting her itch scratched (or so to speak).

Alec's silence causes Max to become even more frustrated, "Well? If there's one thing you say you're really good at, it's this. Now, why don't you put your money where your mouth is and …"

"It's different because I actually care about you, Max! If we do this, you'll regret it… If we do this Max, you'll hate me in the morning…" Alec shouts at her, his eyes, like Max's, blazes with anger, desperation, and desire. 

"Oh, come on Alec, don't be a wimp!! I _promise_ I won't hate you. Please just do this for me. You have no idea how awful this feels…" Max pleads in her last bid of desperation. Despite her tough girl attitude, Max is closed to tears.

Alec grips her shoulder and looks her straight in the eye, "Max, I can't let you. You're going to hate yourself."

Her brown eyes show a mixture of emotions but she says nothing. Finally, she somewhat relaxes under Alec's grip. With much reluctance, she steps back, slowly putting a considerable amount of distance between herself and Alec. Alec fights the overwhelming desire to reach out to her.

"So what should I do?" she says quietly. Her tone sounds calm but her body betrays her façade by being extremely fidgety.

"Go crash at OC's for a few days. The military doesn't know that a transgenic took the software, so they won't be looking. Just stay out of sight. And whatever you do, fight the urge to, uh, mate with an ordinary…" _I don't want to 'mate' with an ordinary. I want to mate with you. But Max nods anyway. _

"…Get OC to watch over you until it's all over. I'll go tell Mole, about your, uh, situation and take care of things while you're gone…"

_God, I can't believe I'm doing this. It'll be so simple just to take her right here. Damn her! Why did she have to give me a conscience?_

"Alec…" _I can't believe he's doing this. Why does he have to care so much? Damn! Why did I have to go and give him a conscience?_

"Max, please just go. Get out of here. Blur, because I don't think I can resist this much longer." Alec turns his head away from Max. He's trying really hard not to inhale her pheromones. Like Max, he's become quite fidgety.

Max doesn't know why, but she's feeling a bit hurt that Alec doesn't want to 'mate' with her. So she just mumbles a "fine", takes one last longing look at Alec, and blurs away.

Alec waits until Max's pheromones have left his system before looking up.

_I can't believe I just did that._

And he blurs all the way toward Terminal City, not daring to look back.

A/N: Well, whaddya think?? Ok, I'm not too sure about this chapter. It's a bit long and a bit more angsty than before. And it seems like things aren't progressing very fast. It's just that I'm a detail-freak. I'd like you to see exactly what I have in my head. I promise you that the next chapter will have more characters and the plot will actually move along. 

Oh yeah, a reviewer asked me about how it seems like in the prologue nothing happens between M/A, but then something does happen in chapter 2 (btw you're right, the prologue happens 4 months after the events in chap 1-3). Well, the thing is I wrote the prologue originally as a standalone. So now, I've got to write so that the events that happened before it will fit the prologue (which is hard, trust me). But don't worry, I've got a plan which I hope will clarify everything.

Um, what else? Oh yeah, I borrowed that description of Max as a hot firecracker from another writer, but I can't remember who. So yeah, if the writer's reading this, it's not that I won't give credit. Just tell me your name and I'll gladly add you in my credit.

Also, I just tell you know that I'm an ANGEL fan. I dunno, if anyone else is, but I got my perception for M/A heat from Angel's 'Waiting in the Wings'. Basically I think that Max's heat can overtake the characters of the people involved. That's why they're not acting like themselves (and they may say stupid things that they normally won't say). And even though, neither X5 can resist the pheromones (and thus, the attraction), their real personalities and logical sense can still come out. Thus, the final outcome of this chapter!

Please review!! Last time, it got me writing this long chapter…


	5. Shuddering over Krit

Summary: Alec tells Max's siblings what happened.

Pairing: M/A (duh!). If you haven't got that after reading three chapters and a prologue, then I dunno what to do with ya.

Rating: PG-13. I wanna be reader-friendly and let's face it, lots of fans of this show are under 17.

Disclaimer: I don't think Cameron & Eglee still own it after the show's cancelled. But yeah, while the show was on its peak, those two owned it (could've done better with it though, if you asked me). Ok, for the past two posts, I've used the disclaimer to express my anti-logan propaganda (like 'anti-war propaganda', get it? Ahh, hell, ignore me, it's 1.30 in da morning). So I'm not gonna do it again. Just gotta say four words: Logan, Normal, mud-wrestling, thong. Imagine the possibilities! Hehe, sorry. Nah, I actually don't mine Logan, if the guy could stay away from Max (do u know how some people can bring out the best in each other when they're together? Well, Max & Logan are completely NOT like that. Logan brings out the weepy, weak, depressing, wallowing in her own tragedy Max; while Max brings out the obsessive, clingy, superhero-complex Logan. They're best apart, I tell ya). Anyway, this is getting long, I've decided to put Log-boy in the story though his scenes are gonna be Max-free and I promise I won't bash his character.

A/N: Once again, thanks for the review, though I'm a bit disappointed with the numbers (this is a hint for more reviews!). I'm so happy that people supported my decision to not have them together. Don't worry, I've got great plans for them! Anyway, here's the chapter you've all been waiting for (or not): Syl and Krit appear!!! Enjoy!

**Chapter 4: Shuddering over Krit**

Three days later and Max still isn't back yet. Several citizens of TC, particularly Syl, Krit, and Joshua, are really worried about her.

When Alec told Syl and Krit that Max went into heat, he was a bit scared that Krit will beat the crap out of him. After all, the only brother of Max's that he ever met was Zack, and he wasn't exactly 'friendly' to any guy who'd potentially be banging his baby sister. Most people would've seen it as a protective big brother thing, but Alec thought that it was more of the Brother Zack-having-the-hots-for-our-little-Maxie thing. Max denied it of course, but who knows what she really thought. After all, Alec had recently heard straight from her very swollen and very soft mouth (courtesy of those damn pheromones!) that sex with her brothers could be kinda "kinky". 

Shuddering off the thought of Max getting down and dirty with Krit, Alec turned to the pair of sibs, preparing for a knuckle on the face.

Instead, he was faced with two slightly curious pairs of eyes, staring silently at him, neither showing any signs of homicidal rage on their faces. _Huh, so far so good._

"What? What's with all the staring?"

"It's just that… um, we'd just like to know… you see, it's a bit confusing… uh, you tell him, Krit."

"Alec, why the hell are you here with us and not, uh, for lack of a better word, screwing away my sister?"

"Krit!" Syl hit her brother upside the head. It might give migraines to an ordinary, but Krit only felt a tingle. "The politically-correct term is 'copulating like bunnies'."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Krit turned toward the Alec. "Seriously man, why aren't you…" he looked at Syl and made the quotation marks with his fingers, "…'copulating like bunnies'…" Syl smiled approvingly, "…with our dear baby sister?"

Alec looked at them like they'd both gone crazy. Well, these two were sure different from Zack. Alec hadn't really got a chance to get to know them. In the past two weeks, he'd been busy with planning tonight's heist and coordinating supplies with Mole. So far though, he'd found out that Syl and Krit had been laying low in Idaho after they took part in Operation Burning Down Manticore's Genetics Lab with Max and Zack. They decided to come to TC when they found out that their presumed-dead little sister Maxie was now leading her own nation in Seattle. Alec still remembered the first time he met them. Both Syl and Krit thought that Manticore had somehow revived Ben. They started hugging and kissing him before abruptly snapping back into combat mode when they remembered Ben's homicidal tendencies. After some very insightful explaining from Max ("This is Alec, Ben's twin"), both of them sort of looked dumbfounded for a second, then Krit awkwardly punched him on the arm, saying "nice to meet you", while Syl mumbled a sorry for eagerly hugging and kissing him (which Alec didn't mind, really, because Syl was a stunner).

After that, Syl and Krit were dragged around by Max, helping her with tasks she didn't really trust any other transgenics with (_Max__ has this whole trust issue going on. But, hey, who could blame her, considering the eleven years she spent with Lydecker breathing down her neck). Whenever Alec spotted the three of them hanging out at the Barcode, Max kind of gave a look that told him to scram. Alec got the feeling that Max didn't want him 'corrupting' her siblings with his happy-go-lucky-sociopath ways. From what he's just seen though, Alec felt like he might not need to._

"Say what? Did you just ask me why I'm not _banging_ your baby sister?"

Krit and Syl had this look on their faces that said 'duh!'

"Well, yeah, 'cause her heat should've driven you crazy…"

 "Pheromones and all... you shouldn't have been able to resist her!"

_You have no idea. Even now I can still imagine her in my arms. The way her soft, but toned, body moulded against mine… The feel of her hot hands caressing my barcode and through my hair… The softness of her lips as we consume each other with our kiss… The way she tastes as our tongues… Oh God. _

Alec felt like his body temperature just went up several degrees. He swallowed, "I didn't. I mean, I couldn't resist her at first. You wouldn't _believe what happened in the air duct. She started…"_

"Wo, wo, wo, wo, uh, we don't need details. This is our baby sister we're talking about," Krit covered Syl's ears with his hands. Syl looked at him irritatingly and shrugged his hands away. She signalled for Alec to continue. Krit just chuckled.

"Well, we did some… 'stuff', but before we could…"

"Copulate?" Syl suggested.

"…Yeah, uh, 'copulate', Max remembered that Mole was probably waiting for us to get back."

"Yeah, well, a cigar-smoking green-skinned lizard transgenic would naturally ruin any perfectly 'heated' moment."

"Shut up, Krit. Stop interrupting Alec! Max was just being the responsible leader that she was. It's amazing, though, that she could still remember anything, let alone her responsibilities, during heat!"

"Where do you think she got that?"

"What, her great memory skills?"

"Yeah, because none of the X5s have such a great memory! No, her leadership sense, genius."

"Don't be smart with me. I don't know. Zack? He was always so bossy and all 'listen to my orders, soldier!'" Syl tried to do a very poor impersonation of Zack.

"Well, he _was_ our CO. But you should talk, Syl!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, come on. 'Seattle's that way, dumb-ass!' and 'Why the hell are you so slow, Kriiit!'" Krit did a very whiny version of Syl.

"I do not sound like that!"

"Yeah, you do…"

As the two X5s got caught up in their own argument, Alec could only look at them with amazement. They just sounded so… close. Like real siblings. _I guess in a way, they are. _Max had told him that Syl and Krit were the only ones of her siblings who stayed together after the escape. Zack didn't approve it at first, but when he saw that how each was so dependent on the other, he concluded that it would be strategically favourable that Syl and Krit remained together. Alec wondered if he and Max would ever be that comfortable with each other. Max! Hey, as he recalled, both of them were listening to his story!

Alec loudly cleared his throat, "Anyway, as I was saying… Max remembered we had to head back to TC. And then I remembered that TC's filled with other X5s. Now, I don't know if you'd been around dozens of male X5s when a female's in heat, but let me just tell you, it ain't pretty; claws coming out and the whole 'I can give her the best sex' banter just flies all over the place."

The two feuding X5s snapped back to focus. Syl nodded and Krit looked deep in thought. "Huh. If Max came back here, I'd probably want to 'copulate' with her too, wouldn't I?"

The three took a moment to shudder in the wrongness of that image.

" 'would've been a funny story to tell Zack, though. Just imagine it. 'Hey Zack, guess who'd just 'copulate' with Max during her last heat!' That'll be a way to get his memory back."

"Yeah, and he'll beat the crap out of you once he does. That'll be great to watch." Syl looked very much uncomfortable with the idea. "Ok, so TC's out of the question. Why not do it outside? You were already there anyway…"

"Well, I kind of realised that I didn't want to do this with Max…"

"Ah, a blonde man, I take it. I've heard about your 'escapades', Alec. I personally would have to agree with you there, buddy, but usually, you're not very picky when heat's involved."

"Stop interrupting him, Krit! He's getting to the good part!"

"But why else would he not go with Max? Was it the way she looked? Did you not think she was hot enough? Though you'd probably hump a lamppost, if it's giving out X5's pheromones..."

 "Don't be stupid, of course that's not it. But we're never gonna know, if you don't shut up!"

Before Krit could reply – which might bring another round of bickering – Alec spoke up, "No, of course I found her very attractive. And in terms of personal preference, you know, blondes, brunettes, redheads, I'd say bring 'em all. As long as a woman's got a mouth skilful enough to…"

Alec and Krit's shared snigger was muted when Syl gave both of them a very stern look.

"Right. Uh, as I was saying, Maxie was looking very appealing and very willing and all, but then, it just kind of hit me. She'll hate me if we did this. So I peeled her off of me."

Syl and Krit just stood dumbstruck for a while. They didn't know how to react to that one.

"So let me get this straight, you said no to her because you actually _like her??"_

"Well, not like her, like her. I just kind of think of her as family."

"What, like she's your sister?"

"No, more like a very bitchy sister-in-law."

"Alec, I hate to break this to you, but Max isn't your sister. Ben _was_ her brother, but that's only 'cause he grew up with her. And I really doubt that even _he would resist her if she went in heat with him..." which received a nod from Krit. "You, on the other hand, are perfectly free to 'bang' her." Syl made quotation marks with her hands._

"I know. It'd just be wrong if I took advantage of her like that. I know that we were both affected, but she would've never gone for it if we weren't."

Once again, Alec was met with silence. He was just about to say something totally smart-allecky to break the mood, when Syl spoke up. "Well, then I'm glad that you were there with her." She squeezed one of his shoulders.

"Yeah, Alec, you've got my mark." Krit nodded at him.

Alec felt like now was time for a smart-alleck comment. "So you guys really don't mind if I get it on with Max?"

"Oh I don't know. I'm still her brother, you know. So 'if you ever hurt her, I'll kiss your ass!!'" this time Krit managed to do a perfect impression of Zack.

And that was it. Now, three days later, Max still hasn't shown up. Syl is starting to worry and is telling Dix to set up an untraceable line to call OC. 

Krit thinks that Max might've met an ordinary on her way and – due to a potential lack of satisfaction that comes with ordinaries – is still scouring the street for another mate. He keeps shooting looks at Alec that seems to say, "You know, if you'd done it with her, her heat would've been over in a day and Syl wouldn't be driving everyone crazy with her concern." Alec just shrugs at him.

He's actually enjoying Krit's company. Ever since he got out of Manticore, Alec had never had a fellow male X5 that he could bond with (Well, actually, he hadn't been bonding with many other X5s ever since he screwed up. After the Berrisford mission, Alec was separated from his unit and spent most of his time either in psy-ops or solitary confinement). Biggs was from his old unit who he caught up with after the escape. But of course, any kind of bonding was cut short when Biggs got lynched by the mob. In a way, Krit reminds him of Biggs. He has this juvenile attitude that Alec can definitely relate to. And he seems to share Alec's light-hearted humor. _Huh, _Max___ must've inherited her bitchiness from the other side of the family._

Syl, similarly, doesn't seem to possess Max's penchant to snipe at most people, in general, and him, in particular. She is a bit bossy but at least she appreciates Alec's sense of humor. _And it doesn't hurt that she's pretty hot. Haha, take that __Max__! Seriously though, Syl's pretty cool. I'm just wondering if anything's going on between her and Krit, since neither of them is so opposed to the idea of 'incestuous' sex. Except for __Max__ and Krit, that is. Alec shudders again. _Why is THAT so weird??__

Alec glances at Syl and Krit. The three of them are currently in Max's office, huddled over a map of TC, trying to come up with living quarters arrangement that will minimise electricity and water. _Ok, they look comfortable enough. No sexual tension there. Maybe they are just really brother and sister... Or MAYBE, they have no sexual tension 'cause they're comfortable enough to have sex and not have the tension. Interesting… Max would've probably said something like, "Spare me from your sick thoughts, __Alec__", if he told her._

Just then Max walks in the door. HQ immediately fell silent. Mole aptly remarks through a mouthful of cigar, "Look what the cat dragged in."

Max looks very uncomfortable with everyone knowing what just went on with her. She avoids everyone's eyes and walks quickly toward Syl and Krit.

Krit yells out to everyone before shutting the door of Max's office, "Ok, show's over, people. Get back to work. Nothing to see here…"

Max hears Dix and Luke saying it's good to have her back, but she just nods at them.

Syl immediately hugs her, "Are you ok, Maxie? What happened? Did you get in trouble? Did you reach your friend's place ok?"

Max looks at Syl. She looks so worried. Syl has always looked out for her every time Zack or Tinga weren't there. One time, back at Manticore, Max got the seizures while her unit was split up for a routine training through the woods. Neither Zack nor Tinga were with her, but Syl reacted immediately by holding her still and giving her the Tryptophan that Zane had managed to smuggle out of the infirmary. Max smiles at that recollection. 

She then turns toward big brother. Despite his cheery face, Krit looks equally concerned. Krit has always been able to make her smile. Even though he's older, he's never overbearing like Zack or charismatic like Ben. Sometimes, Max even feels like she's the big sister. She remembers one time when she was five, Krit had fallen during a routine march and cut his left shin. She had to hug him to prevent him from crying (it was never allowed at Manticore, with the penalty of solitary discipline) while Brin bandaged the wound.

Looking at him now, Max feels really thankful to have her family there with her. She doesn't know how she managed to survive all those years without them. _Zack should've never separated us. We would've survived together. __Ben__ wouldn't have started killing, Brin would've never been captured, and Tinga wouldn't have died. And Zack… well, he wouldn't have to give his heart for me. But I guess he did what he thought was best for our survival…_

Max's eyes then caught Alec's. He's standing a bit behind her siblings, clearly uncomfortable at seeing her for the first time since their last – rather passionate – parting. _Oh God, what we did, what I said, what we *almost* did. I can't believe I was all over __ALEC__ like that. What the hell was I thinking?_

Her more rational part answers. _You were in heat, honey. Don't beat yourself up. You couldn't control yourself as much as he couldn't._

_But he could, though. He resisted me. Oh God, if he hadn't, we would have…_

_Why? Why could he control himself and I couldn't?!?_

Alec, meanwhile, looks awkwardly at Max. So far, she's done nothing but smiled timidly at her siblings. Her eyes lock with his for a second before she turns away. She looks really confused. _Please say something, Max! _

Alec has expected a barrage of shouting directed his way as soon as Max comes back: 'Why the hell did you let anything happen?!? Why didn't you stop it sooner?!? I'm so going to kick your ass, Alec!!!'. If she'd yelled at him, Alec would've been fine. It would've been typical Max; something's wrong, blame Alec. He can deal with that. Now, though, her silence just unnerves him. He's about to say something to deliberately rattle her when she suddenly looks up.

"Yeah, I'm fine. 'crashed at OC's then went back here. No hitch," she answers Syl's earlier question. Then she suddenly stands up, awkwardly avoiding everyone's gazes, particularly Alec's, and mutters, "Uh, I'm gonna bounce. Gotta see Joshua, tell him I'm back. He must be really worried." She walks quickly toward the door.

"You sure you're ok, Maxie?" Krit calls out to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll hook up with you later," she says before shutting the door behind her.

The three remaining transgenics look at each other.

"You think I should go after her?" Alec asks.

"No, leave her alone. She needs to think things through." Krit goes back to the map.

"I'll talk to her later," Syl puts in before joining Krit.

"You? Why do you get to talk to her?" Krit looks up at her.

"Well, I _am_ her sister. And what Max needs right now is a little heart-to-heart with her amazingly insightful big sister."

"'Insightful'? Yeah, right…"

"Shut up, don't underestimate me. There are some things a girl can only share with her sister. I mean, what can _you_ say, Krit, 'Max, heat is bad, but you can't help it, so might as well enjoy it'?

"Well, maybe not in those words…" Krit says quietly.

"No, what she needs is someone who's gone through the same thing." Syl turns to Alec, who's looking really caught up in his own thoughts, "Don't worry, I'll get you back in her good, err, tolerant side in no time."

Alec just mumbles a "thanks" and lets Syl drag him back to their map. _God I hope she's right... Funny, I never thought I'd actually miss __Max__'s overused ass-kicking threats._

A/N: Ok, what do you think of Syl and Krit? I have a confession to make. The only DA ep that I haven't seen is 'Jesus brought a Casserole'. So I actually have never seen Syl or Krit (except in Ashantai's website at  – check it out, btw, it's great. I got lots of info from that) and have even no more idea what they're like (but, as I read in the abovementioned site, their lines didn't tell anything about their characters anyway). Therefore, I've taken great liberty in creating their characters. One anonymous reviewer thought that they'd be more of a thrill-seeker and mischievous, and I gotta say that I agree. Hence my Syl and Krit. Tell me what you think 'k?

I'm also thinking of bringing back some of Max's siblings – I just adore them. Who do ya think it should be and why? Also what should I do with White? Suggestions are very much welcome coz I've only gotten to the middle of the next chapter.


	6. Of Mixed Colors and Memories

Summary: Max goes to visit Joshua.

Disclaimer: James Cameron and Charles Eglee own Dark Angel. There are some quotes which I borrowed from the show and which belong to those dudes I just mentioned. I'm not making any profit from this so you can't sue me. So I guess, since the show's been axed, the only money pouring their way is from the DVDs, huh? Well, I'm not gonna buy them coz I have most of S1 on tape anyway. S2, on the other hand, I want all the earlier eps when Alec has more lines and Max has more interaction with him. Does anyone else notice how M/A scenes kind of disappear in the middle of the season (starting from Borrowed Time) only to re-emerge sporadically in Hello, Goodbye (which is an EXCELLENT ep, btw) and LATR. I know, I know, that DA's not all about shipper moments, but I just got the feeling that the Powers That Be (ie. writers/producers/whatever) kind of wanna brush off Alec's role after he (I'm sure) won the audience's adoration with his early eps. Scared that audience would be swooning over the yummy new Alec and forgot about (gasp!) the great Eyes Only?? Look, basically for me, M/L lost its appeal after they dragged on and on after Blah2x Woof2x. Oh yeah, I've decided to include Log-boy in my story. He's gonna be in the next chapter.

A/N: Geez, I always write long disclaimers, don't I? I'm so glad people like my Syl & Krit! I wasn't sure, coz afterwards I read how some sites described Syl as the order-following type of gal and how she was pure Manticore. Oh well, I'm just gonna justify that by saying that there are two sides of Syl: her soldier side which comes up during mission and her fun human side. Anyway, I dreaded writing this chapter, which is why it takes me such a long time. It's all very boring and confusing (as you'll find) but I just can't find any other way to tell it. Basically, I think this part's important to bring the story along. The next part'll be more exciting, I promise!

**Chapter 5: Of Mixed Colors and Memories.**

"Joshua? Are you home?" Max yells out as she reaches Joshua's place. Her big fella has taken residence in one of the better run-down apartments near HQ (she'd made sure of that).

She cautiously steps through his living room. The place is littered with spilled paints, dirty rags, and crumpled papers. On the easel is Joshua's new creation. It looks sort of rainbow-like, with lots of vibrant colors everywhere.  Max has no idea what it is. Oh well, her big fella' will have some deep and meaningful explanation to give her. That's why she loves him so much. Underneath that childlike innocence, Joshua can be very sensitive and perceptive about life.

Then again, he's always going to be her lovable half-canine transgenic. She smiles when she sees a half-eaten bowl of Mac & Cheese and an unopened pack of Ding-Dongs on his desk. She walks to his bedroom.

"Joshua? Are you there? Josh…" Max stops when she sees the image before her. There, on the bed, Joshua is sleeping – drool threatening to drip from one corner of his mouth – with one arm around a baby; Gem's baby to be exact. Gem had named her Liberty since she was born on the day the transgenics broke free and declared themselves to the world. Max isn't sure if the transgenics could proclaim to have 'liberty' – since their whole population are now besieged in a very small part of the city – but it was a nice homage to the fact that even transgenics wish to enjoy the basic American right to freedom.

Joshua was immediately excited when he heard that there was to be a baby in TC and went out of his way to welcome the newborn. Gem was really smitten when Joshua was able to make Liberty smile by making silly faces. Since then, she often asks Joshua to baby-sit.

Max walks over to her big fella and brings one hand to wipe the drool from his face. Joshua stirs in response and opens his eyes.

"Hey, big fella," she whispers quietly. Joshua smiles up to her but puts one finger in front of his lips and points to the baby. He gets up and she follows him to the door.

Only after he's completely closed the door does Joshua give Max a big hug. "Little fella's ok! Joshua was worried. Gem was worried. Liberty was worried. Wouldn't stop crying, waaa waaa waaa…"

"Yeah, I'm fine big fella. Just had to take some time off, that's all."

"Alec told me of your condition."

"Yeah, well Max thinks Alec should keep his yap shut," Max says under her breath. She pulls Joshua to the living room.

"It's ok, lil' fella. Heat makes you special. All X5s has it. Max and Alec are just normal X5s."

"It's not normal, Joshua. It's a sick and twisted condition that Manticore put in us."

"But it will cheer you up. Max needs some fun in her life. Getting busy with Alec will make you happy."

Max almost chokes on that, "Alec has other girls to make 'happy'."

"Alec was worried about Max. He thought you'd be angry. Alec cares about little fella."

_Yeah, he told me that. What the hell does it mean though? How can he care about me? I've been such a bitch to him! And we always get on each other's nerves. Damn, I don't understand this!_

"Uh, look Joshua, I really don't want to talk about it. Can we just go sit on the couch and hang out?"

"Ok, big fella's going to make his little fella some hot cocoa. Chocolate makes everything ok." Joshua rushes over to the kitchen while Max lies down on the sofa.

"Where'd you hear that?"

"Gem."

"You've been hanging out with her a lot, haven't you?"

"Gem needs help with Liberty."

"How is she?"

"Liberty won't stop crying. Joshua's the only one who can stop her. Gem said Liberty likes my doggy face."

Max is a bit surprised by that last statement. Usually, Joshua tends to growl at anyone mentioning his canine predispositions. It amazes her how her big fella has grown to accept his identity ever since he moved in with the other 'freaks' in TC. 

Joshua comes back to the living room carrying a cup of steaming liquid. Max sits up and takes the cup from him.

"I'm glad that you're happy, big fella. I'm sorry I kept you at that house for so long. It's just that…"

"I know, I know, people are afraid of things they don't understand…"

"Still, I'm sorry that I forced you to stay there. I should've sent you to TC sooner…"

"It's ok. Max was just trying to protect me."

She takes a sip from the cup and turns toward the painting. "So whatcha painting here, big fella?"

"Max's siblings. This is you…" Joshua points to a point in the painting dabbed with a combination of bluish color. "Max needs other colors. Syl and Krit are rainbows. They bring colors to your life."

"Well, what about here?" Max points to a point near the bluish color where's there's a blend of purple, slightly darker than the blue.

"That's Alec. He's too similar to you. You need brighter colors to acknowledge the purple."

_Yeah, well I certainly acknowledged his presence, three days ago. "Listen, Joshua. Do you think I can crash here? I'm beat." Max starts to lie back down on the couch, closing her eyes. Shark DNA or not, her heat was exhausting, especially since she didn't get to satisfy it._

"Little fella sleeps. Joshua will paint." The dog transgenic picks up his paint and starts to dab yellow paint on the canvass. "Yellow will bring out the purple."

His only response is a very light snore on the part of Max.

Darkness.

Flashes of images; images she recognizes.

*

First time she met Logan.

_"Probably the most singularly beautiful face I've ever seen."___

*

Her first kiss with Logan.

_"Someone has to watch out for the downtrodden. Blah, blah, woof, woof, right?" _

*

When Logan asked her out for a date.

_"My cousin's wedding is tomorrow night. I was going to ask you to be my date."  ___

*

Her constant denial about Logan.

_"I've seen the way you two look at each other."_

_"We're not like that."_

*

Her last moment with Logan before she died.

_"__There's something I've got to tell you. I should've said something a long time ago." _

*

First time she met Alec.

_"We're supposed to copulate every night until you get pregnant."_

_"That's sick!"_

_" Take__ off your clothes." _

*

When she learned of the virus

_" You__ killed him… _A genetically targeted retrovirus.__ You're the carrier."____

*

When Alec made her lose her chance with the virus.

_" That__ guy was the last chance for me and _Logan___. He's gone, and it's your fault. Don't think I'm ever getting over that."  _

*

Problems with her relationship with Logan.

_" It's__ hard to explain. It's like...it's too intense. Sometimes I think maybe we're just not meant to be."_

*

Venting off about Alec to Logan.

_"It was your heist. You were there first." _

_"That's what I said! And I bet you he was gonna take whatever he got from it and blow it on hookers and beer." _

*

OC's unwanted comment about Alec.

_"He's from Manticore, huh? Say what you want--they sure know how to make 'em pretty." _

*

Increasing tension with Logan.

_" Here's__ an idea. Instead of busting my chops because I can't do two things at once, why don't you do something about it?"_

*

Possibility of staying away from Logan.

_" I__ don't want to risk hurting him again...but that means not seeing him at all. What am I supposed to do? Give him up?"_

*

More time than she wants to spend with Alec.

_" Give__ it up, __Alec__. The two of you would never work." _

_" Yeah__, you're right. I always do this. I always go for the ones I can't have." _

*

More complaining about Alec to Logan.

_" Ah__, the latest adventures of __Alec__, the lovable X-5 rogue. I can hardly wait." _

_" Like__ an idiot, he mixes business with pleasure and--typically--screwed the whole thing up. It's not like he wasn't taught better. You think they encouraged dating within your unit at Manticore? They didn't."_

*

OC notices something.

_" What's__ up with your boy?" _

_"He's not my boy, and I don't know." _

*

Alec's not all 'pretty colors'.

_"You wouldn't understand. You ran. You and your little rugrat brothers and sisters. You think life was rough when we were ten? Later on, it got a whole lot worse."_

*

The beginning of a friendship with Alec?

          _"You're all right?"      _

_"I'm always all right."_

*

When she finally got her (limited) chance with Logan.

_" We've__ been waiting for the right time. Here it is."_

*

After she and Logan used up their 'borrowed time'.

_"That year we wasted, dancing around each other, afraid of actually admitting how we felt…If I had that time back, I would do that so differently."_

*

Complaining some more to Logan about Alec.

_" He__ was yapping the entire time." _

_"He's a yapper. (Chuckles) Yeah, stuck in the closet with __Alec__--you're pretty much describing my worst nightmare."_

*

Telling Alec her deep-kept secret about Ben.

_"I killed him. He asked me to, so I did. And then I ran. I saved myself. And I just left his body there for them to take away." _

_ "Max, I'm sorry."_

*

Bonding with Alec.

_"Yeah.__ That's probably why I'm such a bitch to you sometimes." _

_"Maybe… Or, you know, maybe 'cause I'm such a pain in the ass sometimes." _

_(Smiles) " Be careful." _

_"Always."___

*

Breaking it off with Logan.

_"Tell me it's not true." _

_"I can't… It's over. We're done. Get used to it."_

*

Telling Alec about her lie to Logan.

_"Why do you have to drag me into it?"_

_"I had to push him away."_

_"Yeah, so blame _Alec___, 'cause he's just the kind of jerk that'd steal another guy's girl." _

_"Please don't."_

_"Max, whatever's going on with you and Logan has nothing to do with me, okay?__ I'm not going to be the bad guy."_

*

Alec actually sacrificing his reputation to help her.

_"You're right. I mean, you had to say something. Only, you didn't push him away. I'm not sure what could. He let go, because he wanted you to be happy… Now, don't start crying on me, 'cause he said I had to take care of you."_

*

One of her last happy moments with Logan.

_            " Now look what you've done."___

*

When Logan's health deteriorated.

          "_I'll be fine, Max. We'll get through this."_

_            " It's not worth it. You've gotta go."_

*

Her last goodbye with Logan.

          _" I'll_ never give up, Max."__

_            " Goodbye, __Logan__."_

*

Her recent 'development' with Alec.

_            "Max, you have no idea how much I want this. But it's different with you."_

_            "Why?!? Why the hell is it different?!?"_

_            " It's different because I actually care about you!"_

*

Seeing Logan after her latest heat.

_            "I still love you, Max."_

_             (Voice breaking) "This will never work, __Logan__. Forget about us."_

*

Faster flashes of images, culminating with images of Logan and Alec. Then…

Darkness.

A voice, one that she recognises as her own, speaks up, "Who's it gonna be, Max?"

*

Max abruptly opens her eyes. She gasps for breath, her body automatically sitting up from her sleeping position.

She breathes heavily, sweat drenching her face. Her eyes are starting to focus. She looks around. A room, old rattled furniture, messy floor, huge colourful painting in front of her. Her mind starts to register. _Joshua__'s living room._

She looks down. She is sitting on a sofa, wool blanket covering half of her body. She still breathes heavily and she feels really hot from hyperventilation.

_I was dreaming! It was all a stupid damn dream… Oh God, what does it mean, though? _

Like a typical X5 who tends to lash out when anxious, Max feels the impulse to punch something to clear her head.

_I've gotta get out of here…_

She calls out for Joshua but finds no answer. _Forget it, I need to get out of here NOW. _Max agitatedly leaps off from the sofa and dashes out of Joshua's apartment, feeling the incredible urge to beat the crap out of something.

A/N: I know how readers hate too many quotes, but I just can't find another way to tell it. Just think of it as a trivia game, 'k? Try to guess which quote comes from whom and from which ep. For me, they can actually demonstrate how Max's relationships with Logan and Alec have progressed during the show. Now, basically, I'm M/A (and this story WILL DEFINITELY be M/A). So I'm sorry for all the M/L scenes up there (I think you do have to shoot me, Jenn!), but let's face it, they were present in the show, so I couldn't totally ignore it. Since I have completely forgotten all 'significant' M/L scenes (yeah, they made no impression on me whatsoever), I got some of them from the 'M/L fave moments' board in the Broken World (). Check it out, it's a great site for all DA shippers (even M/W!). And I got all the quotes from the episode transcripts at which were very comprehensive! Oh yeah, and there are obviously some quotes that you may not recognize. I basically made up all the post-FN ones. The one with Alec is from chapter 3 of my story. And that last one with Logan, it's basically from when she met him after this heat. Yeah, I'm gonna explain that in the next chapter.

What else? Yeah, it was really hard for me to write Joshua. So tell me how I went, 'k? And I know nothin' about art, so I dunno if Joshua's painting made sense.

Oh, and special thanks for the anonymous reviewer (why don't you give a name?) who'd gave a lot of interesting suggestions about Max's siblings. I dunno, what I'm gonna do exactly. It's best that I don't plan my storyline extensively, coz I find it better for me to write as I go, just adding whatever pops into my head. But I'm definitely gonna feature one, if not, some of them.


	7. Conversations about Each Other

Summary: three sets of conversations about each other after Max's heat.

Rating: PG-13. Tryin' to keep it reader-friendly.

Pairing: M/A – duh, as if I'd be writing anything else!!

Disclaimer: Cameron & Eglee own it. I ain't nothin' but an aspiring writer (hehe!) who's obsessed with their creations (especially Alec!! Yummy). Ok, no long disclaimers, people. Can't think of anything to say anyway.

A/N: Log boy's here, and I've tried really hard not to bash him or make his character obnoxious. In this fic, he knows that Max and Alec were never together. Anyway, I'm sorry that I haven't posted for such a long time. Honestly, I've got lots of assignments to do. I've actually already knew what I wanted to write for ages, I just never had the time to write it down. So, to make it up to you guys, here's a super long post.

Dedication: to Cloudburst for leaving a long review. Glad that you like my long disclaimers ;-)

**Chapter 6: Conversations about Each Other.**

Original Cindy climbs off her bicycle and strides toward an old house. She walks up the front porch stairs and lightly knocks on the door. A man, who looks like he hasn't shaven for a couple of days, answers.

"What's up, Logan?"

"Cindy, come in." He opens the door and steps aside to let OC enter. "What brings you here?"

"You know, just checkin' if my boo's man is a'right. So how you been?"

Logan smiles, "'been better." He walks, supported by the exoskeleton, toward the living room, "But last time I checked, I'm not Max's 'man' anymore…" then he adds under his breath, "…if I ever was in the first place."

OC sighs, "Ok, now, OC's just gonna say this once so you betta listen. Max loves you – hell, I neva seen my sugar more caught up with a brother before! – but her heiny's in a tough spot right now. You gotta give her time."

"Well, you know that I won't ever give her up," he smiles, "'Think I might've come across a guy who could help us with the cure. Asha's checking to see if he's the real deal," he pauses before continuing, "Still…"

"What?"

"Well, even if we get the cure, there's still the whole deal with the military bent on taking her out."

"Why you bein' so negative, fool?! She is gonna get through this. She always does. So we just betta do what we can out here. You'll fight the good fight and OC'll hook 'em up with some of the bare essentials. Check it out, the Original just scored them a couple dozens o' crates of booze. Should be enough to keep the party goin' for months. Oh, and Normal helped. Ain't that trippin'?"

Logan chuckles, "Who would've thought?" He sighs, "So far I haven't found any way out for them though. I could probably score enough fake papers for the X-series, but what about the others? If I can't find any glitch in the military's plan, then they're stuck there."

"Don't try to do too much, fool! OC ain't wanna see yo' ass killed. Max told me to look out for you so OC's gonna do exactly that."

Logan only responds with a slight smile. He bends down to pick up some papers, eyes avoiding OC's. "So did she say anything about TC? What, uh, happened before the heat? Why she was out there?" Logan is almost scared to ask. Why Max was even out of TC is beyond him – good thing though, especially with all those able-bodied male X5s just scurrying all over the place. Logan _had_ seen Max after her cycle was over, but, in her determination to push him away, she barely said a word to him ("This will never work, Logan. Forget about us.") before bolting out into the night.

OC contemplates whether she should tell Logan what her boo _almost_ did before she came over.

She bites her lip, "Now don't freak out on OC, remember, I ain't nothin' but the messenger…" she looks at Logan and waits for him to nod before continuing "…Max almost kicked it in with Alec. They were pullin' a job when the whole seasonal meow bitch hit."

"So she…"

"Nah, pretty boy pulled back at the last moment. Probably why she showed up all sweaty and horny. OC gotta put a couple o' smackdowns on her tail before you sent over Asha." OC smiles at the recollection. When she had called Logan for help, the great cyber-journalist had immediately sent over his new errand girl. _That Asha is sure a damn fine honey! Too bad she's all googly eyes for __Mr.__Eyes__ Only, though. _

Mr. Eyes Only, however – who, unlike Cindy, isn't invoking any thoughts of Asha or her fine ass – decides to interrupt OC's lovely recollection by voicing aloud his thoughts, "I don't get it. Why would Alec – not that I'm not relieved – turn her down? You know, being the happy-go-lucky skirt-chaser that he is."

Logan looks at her, expecting OC – the great batter for the all-female team – to provide insight to the ever-complicated mind of a male X5. She shrugs her shoulders and puts up her hands, "Hey, don't ask me. I ain't understandin' the way you three-legged think."

***

"What can I get you?"

Alec looks up to see Tux, the purple-skinned transgenic, peer at him from across the bar. He can't quite figure out what Manticore was trying to pull when they created Tux, but he just knows that the guy creates awesome cocktails.

"Yeah, just the regular." The 'regular' being Alec's signature scotch on the rocks.

"You got it."

Alec watches as the barkeep disappears from his line of sight to prepare his drink. He has come to the Barcode tonight to clear his head, his earlier encounter with Max still fresh on his mind. _Thought I'd never see the day when __Max__ and I don't have anything to say – even pathetically offensive – to each other. _

"Alec, you seen Max? We're running kinda low on the ammo count."

Alec looks up to see the ever-short-tempered Mole, puffs of cigar billowing all around him. "Yeah, last heard she was heading to Joshua's, but don't worry, I'll take care of it."

"You better. When those bastards storm in our doors, I want to have something solid to drill back at 'em." Then, before leaving, he adds, "Oh, and I'm gonna need more cigars."

Alec takes a mental note of that and returns to his thoughts. He wonders what Max's doing right now. He'd met Joshua in the mess hall earlier. The canine transgenic was bringing Liberty to see Gem, who was on cooking duty today. Joshua had told him that Max was fine and that she's sleeping on his couch right now. Sensing that Alec might feel uncomfortable about her, Joshua added, "Lil' fella's not mad at you, just confused." Alec had said nothing.

When his drink finally comes, he slugged down almost half of it in one go.

"Hey, take it easy, buddy. Drink's not going anywhere."

Alec turns to face Krit and signals him to sit down.

"Thanks, yeah, I think I'll join you." He calls out to Tux, "Can I get a beer?"

Alec takes another sip, with more restraint this time, "So where's Syl?"

"How would I know? We're not Bonnie and Clyde, you know. She got her own business and I got mind." When Alec doesn't response, he continues, "Yeah, she went to have that 'sisterly talk' with Max. She's ditched me for the night."

Alec shrugs, "Well, hopefully she can twist Max's panties back in place. God knows, she'll be itching to blame _that on me."_

Krit chuckles, "I think twisted panties are the least of Max's problems right now. But don't worry, Syl's talking you up, buddy!"

"Now why would I want that?"

"Oh, come on. Us X5s have very sharpened sense of observation, you know," Krit winks and points to his head. "Yeah, learnt that from Manticore too…"

"Gee, I never would've guessed."

"… And know what I've observed? You have this thing for her. Why else would you have stayed all this time? I betcha those control freaks back at Manticore wouldn't like you hanging around the rogue 'O9 escapees."

Alec chuckles, "Yeah, they said you guys were 'defective traitors'."

"Really? I always wonder what the old gang would say about us. 'Guess it was a bit much to ask that they'd just wish us well."

Alec doesn't response. He gulps down his drink and signals Tux for a refill. It's a bit weird talking to Krit about this. He can't believe the guy's taking such a light-hearted view on Manticore. Max hates talking about it.

"So?"

"What?" Alec stares at his newly-refilled glass.

"I said 'you have this thing for Max'. That carefully planned remark should've brought more reaction on your part. 'Gotta say that I'm a bit disappointed..."

"What can I say? I liked it here. Good job, boss adored me, lots of heist potentials, lots of booze, plenty of chicks to provide plenty of sex – that is before the whole exposure mess comes to play, of course. After that, any kind of sex with an ordinary just became an unfortunate impossibility. Shame really, 'cause some of them have incredible stamina…" Alec smiles at the images that popped into his mind. There's the redhead with the cowboy boots, the leggy screamer, the aspiring porn star, the blonde with the HUGE… He notices that Krit's looking at him somewhat amusingly, so he continues, "…anyway, it was that simple. Why the hell would I leave? And Max? Well, she just happened to be there, dragging my ass around while she tried to play hero."

"That simple, huh?"

"It's that simple." He takes a big gulp from his glass.

"Sounds good enough. Alright, I'm gonna let you off the hook… For now." Krit takes a drink from his bottle, "So anyway, whatever happened to that dude she was so big-eyed about last time I was here? Logan whatever…"

"Virus."

"What, did he have some kind of disease? I _knew_ there was something shady about that guy; probably why Zack was so keen to take him out."

"No, Logan doesn't have any diseases – not that I know of, anyway; I mean if the guy's got any bug, it's definitely for an uptight-cliché-knight-in-shining-armor-syndrome; well, in his case, it's more like knight-in-shining-exoskeleton…" Alec fumes for a little while, remembering the time Logan had saved his shot-down ass from one of those familiar chicks, and then _gloating about it. __If _Max___ didn't love him so much… and if I didn't have a frickin' bullet embedded on my shoulder… I swear I'd…_

Alec then remembers that he was in the middle of telling Krit about Max and Logan's great love saga. Ignoring the confused look on the other guy's face, Alec continues, "Anyway, while she was back, Manticore gave her a virus that's specifically targeted at his DNA. Basically, if she touches him, he dies." Alec takes another sip, "Oh, and Zack did try to kill him when he got back. That's why the dude's scooping up cow dung right now, instead of acting bodyguard to your little Maxie."

"Yeah, Max told me that she sent Zack away 'cause he's gone 'homicidal'. Never would've guessed that he was after ol' Logan, though. The guy was kind of wimpy, if you asked me. Why would Manticore bothered with him, anyway?"

Alec shrugs, "He's Eyes Only."

"Really? Ok, slightly more impressed…" Krit remembers when he saw the Eyes Only broadcast that tipped them off about Deck. He and Syl had to haul ass pretty quickly; shame, really, 'cause they actually had a good thing going on in Las Vegas. _Wow, we kinda owe our lives to __Logan__. Alright, so the guy's pretty decent. "So Maxie couldn't touch him, huh? That must've put a huge clink on her sex life. 'Guess this guy was really THAT good, huh, for Max to hang around that long?"_

"Actually, 'they were never like that'." When Krit stares at him confusedly, Alec continues, "Hey, don't look at me, I never understood why she was so hooked on him. You wouldn't believe the amount of bitching and moping she spent on this guy! You'd think he was the world's greatest catch or something!!" He pauses to order another drink, "But I guess she really did 'love' him; whatever that means. Once, after she came close to killing him, she actually used _me as a cover to push him away."_

"What, you mean…?"

"Yeah, she gave him the impression that we were screwing around behind his back. I mean, who cares, right, if I actually had a reputation to keep?!?"

"Hmm, never thought my baby sis could be such a bitch… So then what happened? How come he stuck around for such a long time in this hellhole?"

"Well, somehow, somewhere along the way, they kind of forgot about the 'boyfriend' she was supposed to have and went back to their dead-end relationship. For all I care, if Max wanted to wallow in self-pity, then who was I to stop her?"

"And after all this time, they never actually got it on??"

"Well, one time they got this temporary cure that lasted twelve hours, but Max decided to play hero and spent the better hours of her time dragging me through the sewers, looking for this 'thing' that actually wanted nothing more than to play Dr. Sticky-Goo with us. When time was up, she and Logan hadn't got past wine and dancing."

"Ah, the die-hard romantics… Ugh, I'm not sure I want my sister to be with someone who doesn't appreciate the simple pleasures of sex. Life's short, man. Why waste it on dancing when you can have sex?"

"Well, she can't see him anyway, with him being deadly 'allergic' to the chemicals here."

"Do you think she saw him, though, while she was out there? 'Hope she didn't try to bang him, though. 'Cause if she did…"

"Yeah, I know, I know. I'll be responsible for depriving the world of Eyes Only's wonderful streaming freedom video bulletins."

"You could've just given in to her…."

Alec shakes his head at that remark but says nothing. He can't believe that Krit is taking such an easy and uncomplicated view on sex. He just makes it sound so simple. _I used to think that way. Then __Max__ has to come along, you know, with her devoted abstinence from __Logan__ and her moral preachings. You'd think she was a nun! A very bitchy and hot-looking nun, granted, but she'd still be perfect for the job…_

"So you think she saw Logan out there? Maybe that's why she was all hot and bothered this afternoon?"

Alec shrugs, "My money's on yes. After all, Log boy never misses a chance to see our little Maxie. 'Guess we'll find out when Syl gets back."

***

*WHAM!*

Max's fist slams into the ratty old punching bag. She had gone straight from Joshua's place to this exercise room that some of the X5s had set up near the infirmary. So far it has nothing more than an ancient-looking punching bag, a couple of sets of weights, and a mat used for sparring. She'd actually gone down there a few times to train with Alec. 

_Alec__… ugh, I really don't want to be thinking about him right now. She punches the bag really hard. _I mean this is all his fault. If he hadn't done what he did, I wouldn't be here right now._ *wham* *wham*. _

_No, I'd probably be down there, on the mat, kicking his sorry ass for taking advantage of me. *wham* *wham* *WHAM*._

_I mean, where did he go off, restraining himself from SEX?!? What the hell was he on, pulling himself away from ME? You know, I betcha this is just one of his ploys. So he can come out to be the better person or whatever… Damn him!! *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM*_

_If he'd just screwed me, I could just blame everything on him.  *Wham* _I wouldn't be here, destroying my knuckles, racking my brain  for some reason why HE could hold himself back and I couldn't.  _*wham* *wham* *WHAM*_

_And what was that whole deal with him 'caring' about me?!? How could he? Why would he? He couldn't have meant it, could he? _

But Max knows very well that Alec had been sincere when he told her that. She knows that that was why Alec had pulled back. The realization irritates her even more.

*Wham* _Ok, so __Alec__ cares about me. Big deal, right? I mean he had been tagging along like a lost little puppy ever since Manticore went down. He needs me. I was the first person he knew in the outside world… _

_He never had trouble making friends though._

_Friend… Is that what I am to him?_

*Wham* _Ok, yeah, I consider him a friend. He _was_ there a couple of times when I needed him; you know, like when I wanted to steal money for that temporary cure or when Joshua lost Annie or when I had to push Logan away…_

_Yeah, and what have you done for him, _Max___?_

It annoys her that her conscience does not seem to be taking her side. *Wham* _I've done plenty of things for him. I gave up the cure to save his life *wham* I saved him from that Berrisford dude *wham* I bailed his ass out of jail *wham* I've done a __LOT__ for him!! *WHAM* *WHAM*_

_Yeah, but did you do any of those because you actually cared?_

Max pauses in her punching rampage. _I cared… enough. I care if he's alive or dead. I didn't used to. That's enough, isn't it? Oh whatever… _*wham* _If __Alec__ cares about me, then that's his business. I don't have to reciprocate or beat myself up because of it. *wham* *wham* *wham*_

_It's not like he LOVES me. I mean, even if he did, it'd be like in a sibling kind of way, wouldn't it? He is__Ben__'s twin and __Ben__ did love me like a sister… He just felt weird 'cause he was doing this with his twin's sister. Max ignores that nagging sound in another part of her brain that says that Alec never knew Ben and wouldn't care less if the girl he was bagging was Ben's sister or not._

*Wham* _Yeah, __Alec__ just cares about me like Krit or Zack does. Well, ok, maybe not Zack. If he did, he would've probably killed __Logan__ a long time ago…_

_Oh God, __Logan__… I can't believe I ran off from him the way I did. But it's all for the best. __Alec__'s right (crap!), __Logan__ and I can never be together. He'll get killed. It's for the best. __Logan__'ll find someone else and forget about me…_

_Yeah, someone like blondie, who he actually _sent the other night to keep _me _down!! As if I couldn't take her down if I really wanted to…__

*WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM!*

"Hey, Maxie, haven't anyone ever told you to pick on somebody your own size?"

Max whips around, ready to beat the crap out of the intruder.

_Syl._

"I mean, that poor punching bag is about an inch from death and it's not even hitting back. What about taking on someone with a bit more expertise, huh?"

Max somewhat relaxes from her fighting stance, "Who, you?"

"Why not? 'Haven't fought you for eleven years, baby sis. I'm kinda curious how far you've developed…" Syl removes her jumper to reveal a grey tank top. Then she adds with a smile, "And besides, I get bored kicking Krit's ass all the time." She pulls her hair up in a ponytail.

"I don't think you wanna do that, Syl. The street's kinda made me tough…" Max grins at her. Despite her teasing words though, Max has put up her fighting stance again. She actually misses sparring with her siblings and she's also curious on how much Syl has improved.

Syl finishes putting on her fighting gloves and walks toward Max on the sparring mat, "Well, Maxie, as they'd say on the street…" she cocks her head to one side and plasters on a smirk for Max, "…'bring it on, bitch.'"

"Oh, you did not just call me a…" but she never gets to finish as Syl delivers a clean blow to her left cheek.

_Oh, she's gonna pay for that. Max quickly retaliates by delivering several punches, which Syl skilfully blocks. __Huh, I guess kicking Krit's ass does her well._

Syl aims her leg at Max's torso, but Max anticipates it by stepping back. She swings her leg out at Syl, but the other girl manages to capture her leg and throws her back. The impact causes Max to crash to the ground.

Max quickly scrambles to her feet and the two X5s start to circle each other around the mat.

"What's on your mind, Maxie?"

"What do you mean, Syl?"

"Last time I saw you, you were pretty good, baby sis. But you're definitely off your game tonight. 'Wanna tell me what's bothering you?"

"No, I'd rather fight." And with that, Max lunges at Syl. She manages to crash her legs to the side of Syl's torso before the other girl delivers an elbow to her face. Max's head snaps back for a second before she returns full force with a series of blows. 

In the middle of this series of punches, Syl speaks up, "Oh come on, Maxie. It's me, your sister. Spill…"

"I don't want to talk about it." *punches*

*blocks* "It's the heat, isn't it? You feel bad 'cause… you didn't get it on with Alec?"

"What? Hell, no!! I'm relieved!" *left hook*

*right jab* "Then what is it?" *punch* *punch* "Oh, it's that guy, isn't it? What was his name? Logan?"

Max only answers with a series of light blows.

Syl steps back from her attack. "It is, isn't it? You feel bad 'cause you think you've betrayed your boyfriend."

"Ex." *punch*

"What?" *swings leg*

"Ex-boyfriend… But we weren't like that." *ducks*

"Fine. You feel guilty to your ex-whatever 'cause you ALMOST got it on with Alec? What's the big deal, Maxie? You didn't even 'bang' him."

Max takes a step back and drops her stance for a moment, "'Bang' him? Have you been hanging around Alec?" She shakes her head, dismissing her own question, "It's not really about the guilt. Apart from the whole toxic chemical at TC, Logan and I have the virus. I mean, it's hard enough to give up someone just 'cause they'd die when they're around you, but to be kept reminded of that fact…" She starts to attack Syl again, managing to deliver a series of kicks on her legs.

Syl retaliates with a combination of jabs and kicks. "What do you mean? Didn't you get him across to Canada?"

Max steps back and shakes her head. "He didn't want to go. He wanted to help," she pauses, "I saw him when I was out there."

"What happened?" Syl seeks out to strike Max again after her baby sis almost nabs her in the head with a roundhouse kick. Their sparring session is basically on auto-pilot; their movements precise and graceful.

"I couldn't even look at him… He's still full of hope for us." *swipes leg*

"You love him, Max?" *jumps*

"It's not worth it. He's wasting his life on me. He needs to move on…" *elbows*

"Have you?" *blocks*

"It doesn't matter. I'm pretty much screwed." *punch*

"What about Alec?"

Max nearly gets hit in the head by Syl's foot, "What ABOUT Alec?"

"Well, what do you feel about him? He seems to care about you." Syl kicks out at Max.

Max steps back, trying to catch her breath. "Alec doesn't see me that way."

"Oh, I don't know Maxie. When he went and told us what happened, he was pretty concerned about you."

"He's just feeling guilty." *kicks*

"Why? He didn't do anything wrong." Syl captures her leg and punches her in the face.

"He didn't stop it sooner." Max tries to swipe her hands at Syl.

Syl tangles her hands with Max's. "Oh, Maxie, he couldn't control it as much as you couldn't. In fact, it's pretty amazing that he pulled back at all. He said he did it 'cause he cares…"

From her very close position, Syl can see Max's face contorts in confusion, "He _told_ you that?!?"

"Pretty much… But he kinda mixes you up for some kind of sibling. Don't worry, I told him that he's not our brother and that he can 'bag' you if he wants." Syl grins at her and tries to disentangle herself from Max.

But Max won't let her. She frowns, "What?!?  That's sick! He thinks I'm his sister!"

When Max won't still let her go, Syl decides to headbutt her. Max staggers backward, holding her head for a couple of seconds before returning to her fighting stance.

Syl makes the first move, "Well, his exact words were 'a very bitchy sister of my twin'. Look, I don't know what kind of twisted relationship you guys have, but it's definitely not 'sick' for you guys to have sex. He's not Ben…"

Max interrupts her, while ducking one of Syl's punches. "I know he's…"

"…And even if he was, it's not like we're all 'real' brothers and sisters. It's not exactly incest for us to have sex…" *punch*

Max doesn't get a chance to interrupt because Syl just goes on. The younger X5 instead concentrates on her moves; knowing Syl, a leg swipe is coming soon. Max prepares herself to jump.

"…Besides, it won't hurt having an X5 heat buddy…" *punch*

Max gets sidetrack from her concentration when she realises the implication of Syl's statement, "What do you mean, an 'X5 heat buddy'?" *swipes*

"Well, to put it bluntly, it's an X5 you can screw whenever you're in heat. 'Beats having to scour the street for a mate…" *blocks*

"Do you have one?" _She doesn't. I mean, how could she? _*elbows* Max tries to focus in her fighting. _Any moment now… Syl's famous leg-swipe…_

"Yeah." *kicks*

*ducks* "Really? Who?" _Nah, she's bluffing. Ok, prepare to jump; it's her next move…_

Syl pauses before she answers, her face expressionless, "Krit."

And Max – losing her concentration and shock etching on her face – goes down like a pile of bricks when Syl decides to choose that moment to swipe Max's legs from underneath her.

A/N: Hehehe, I'm mean, aren't I, leaving at with a cliffhanger?? Don't worry, I already know what to write next so encourage me to post it by reviewing!! Anyway, just wanna say thanks to my reviewers who like Syl & Krit (are you glad that I've included more of them here?) and Josh's paintings! About this chapter, OC is, by far, the hardest character to write; her lingo's complicated! Oh, and I really can't write fighting scenes – probably why many of the terms sound so made up. Oh well, as long as you get that they're fighting and talking.


	8. The 'Deal' with Crickets

Summary: Max has a lil' talk with Syl, while Alec has one with Krit.

Rating: PG-13. Basically I wanna keep the language like how it is in the show…

Pairing: M/A. And apparently, S/K!

Disclaimer: All belong to James Cameron (Mr. Sinking-Giant-Loveboat himself. Btw, I haven't seen Titanic *insert very audible gasp here*. I dunno, just never got around to it. I mean it's like 3.5 hrs and the guy dies in the end – sorry, not one for the sad endings. And isn't it like completely overrated? Or is it like the greatest masterpiece since the Monalisa which is another one I can't quite figure out – ehh, call me ignorant on art ?) and Charles Eglee. Now the show's cancelled, so maybe they should auction out the copyrights or somethin'. Betcha some readers of the DA world would just LOVE to get their hands on the, uh, ah, thing (how does a copyright LOOK like anyway? Is it just like a piece of paper that says: 'I own DA and am able to sue anyone profiting from it?').

Dedication: To all my wonderful reviewers!! Wow, I got more than I thought I would! Thank you so much! 

**Chapter 7: the 'Deal' with Crickets**

After giving Krit a revised version of the 'Max/Logan: the Tragic Love Saga of a Rogue X5 and the Great Eyes Only', Alec feels the need to change the subject; it is not in his nature to wallow in things complicated and painful. He glances at his drinking companion and considers his options.

Alec turns toward Krit. "Anyway, since you brought it up earlier… I was just wonderin'… What actually goes on between you and Syl?"

"Whaddya mean?"

"Well, basically, I think you two are doing stuff Brother Zack would frown upon."

Krit laughs at that, "Yeah, Alec. Me and Syl just go CRAZY at those amateur karaoke championships!"

"You know that's not what I meant."

"Spill it out then."

"Alright…" Alec smirks before continuing, "Well are you two 'copulating like bunnies'?"

No gasps of indignation from Krit. No 'what-are-you-nuts-dude-she's-my-sister!' even slips out of the darker-haired X5. Instead, he just smiles to his drink.

"Oh, come on, buddy. You can tell me. 'Promise I won't tell Sister Max…"

Finally after a too-long silence – during which Alec swears he can hear crickets chirping away in the background (which is impossible, really, cause: one, the Barcode's way too noisy for even Alec's superior hearing; and two, no crickets can survive the lovely selection of chemical goodness available at TC), Krit replies quietly, "What made you think there might be something going on with me and Syl?"

"Ahh, just relyin' on my keen sense of Manticore-trained observation…" he mimics the gesture Krit did earlier by winking and pointing a finger to his head.

Krit chuckles, "Ah, someone's learning… Alright, just 'cause you've been so generous earlier, I'll indulge you…" he looks up to see Alec gesturing his hand for him to continue. Krit looks from side-to-side, then leans in conspiratorially and whispers, "Syl and I… we have this special deal…"

 ***

Max lies on her back on the mat. Her breathing's really heavy, her torso's aching, her legs are sore, and her arm's bruising in several different places. But she can feel none of those because her mind is preoccupied with a particular revelation her sister just gave her.

_Krit__ is her 'heat buddy'?!? Syl's slept with Krit?!? My sister has had sex with my brother?!?_

Syl's concerned face pops into her line of sight.

"Maxie, are you ok?"

Max wants to answer, but words are just not coming out. She only manages a half-nod. Her face is still fixed on that shocked expression she sported when she went down.

Syl frowns. _Oh boy, she's taking this harder than I thought._ Syl decides to lie down next to Max, her head just next to her baby sis'.

"Max, say something… 'You dirty little bitch, Syl, how could you!' Come on, you know you want to…"

After quite some time – during which Syl thinks she may have heard those crickets going on in the background (who would have thought that they'd be so widespread around TC?) – Max clears her throat and answers, "Your… your heat buddy is Krit?!? You slept together?!?"

Syl nods. She figures, if she's going into this with Max, she better do it right, "Sleep."

"What?" Max turns her face toward her sister's.

"We _sleep _together. As in present tense." Syl, too, twists her head to face Maxie. "Well, whenever I get into heat anyway…"

Max sits up, "I can't believe this! How could you?! He's our brother!"

Syl follows suit, "Look, it's not that big of deal. We're not real siblings, you know, Max…"

"I know that, but… how? Why?" 

"Well, first time it happens, he was the only guy around. I… _we couldn't help it… Then afterwards, we figure that it'd be safer if I stick to him during my heat, since we're staying together anyway… less chance of exposure, especially with Lydecker breathing down our necks… So yeah, he's been my 'heat buddy' ever since."_

"Syl, he's your brother! How can you face each other in the morning?"

"Oh Maxie, it's not that big of deal. It's just sex. Remember, Manticore taught us that sex can just be another weapon…"

"Yeah, well, Manticore also taught us to take out people with a TOOTHPICK! You don't go around 'toothpicking' people to death, do you?"

Syl smiles at that, "…Only when the opportunity presents itself, Maxie. But seriously, Krit is still my brother in the morning. Nothing changes."

"But he's our BROTHER! You are having sex with our brother! It'll be like me, sleeping with…"

"With who, Maxie? Zack? I don't think he's gonna mind much…" Syl chuckles.

"Shut up! Zack's just protective; he's protective of all of us…" but images of Zack flash through her mind: when they were at Logan's cabin after they had to bail out of Seattle, when Zack couldn't remember anyone's locations, when Zack thought they were together… _Ok, so there were 'moments'. But still…_ "You are not changing this subject, Syl."

"Well, what else do you wanna know, Maxie?" Syl starts to get amused by this situation. _Max__ can be so serious sometimes. "Like how much 'our brother' rocks my world?"_

Max punches her on the shoulder. "Urgh, DON'T tell me…" 

Despite the fact that she thinks the revelation's still a big deal, Max can not help smile at that remark. Then after a few moments, she adds, "Well, are you guys, you know, 'involved'?"

Syl raises her eyebrows.

***

"Man, that's a pretty sweet deal, you got goin' on.... Regular no-string-sex with your sister? It's kinky… I like it!" Alec comments after Krit explains his 'deal' with Syl.

"I figure you would, Alec. Zack, on the other hand, WOULDfrown on that. And I got a feeling that Maxie would too. But hey, Syl could be telling her right now; she's been saying that we should break the news to our baby sis."

Alec laughs, "I can just imagine her reaction…" then he makes a high-pitched impersonation of Max, "'Syl, he's your brother! Sex is wrong! You can only do it with someone… AFTER you've danced around each other for a YEAR, eating NOTHING less than gourmet pasta and wine… and then got injected with a VIRUS that makes it IMPOSSIBLE for you to touch him… then, after pushing him away with some cockamamie bullshit about how you're shacking up with a very fine specimen of transgenic, rekindled that 'relationship' by a certain latex-gloves-hand-holding ceremony…"

Alec shuts up when he realises that he said that out loud. Krit looks at him like he's suddenly developed Mole's lovely complexion, raises his eyebrows and throws up his hand, "Man, you got issues…"

"Well, I try… Anyway, you and Syl… Are you like a couple?"

"What do you think?"

"Hey, you're the one banging her…"

Krit smirks, "Nah, dude, she's like my sister! The deal's only for heat. Otherwise, we 'bang' other people."

Alec considers that, "Huh, 'guess in some twisted way that would actually work…" _Wow, Krit wasn't kidding when he said this was no-string sex. Now, if only Maxie would share his attitude…_

Then, as if reading his mind, Alec hears Krit speaks up, "Yeah, you should try it with Maxie, Alec…"

Alec just shakes his head.

***

Max stares at Syl after the older girl explained her 'deal' with Krit. 

"So, basically… every time you got the feline munchies, you go to Krit. But otherwise, you eat someplace else?"

"That's one way of putting it…"

"And it doesn't bother you… that's he might be shacking up with some random flavor the next night?"

"Nah… we're not 'exclusive', Max. It's just a convenient arrangement. We do it like twice a year. Otherwise, he's pretty much free to get it on with any other chicks."

"That is one twisted deal…"

"Yeah, but it's way safer this way. Don't get me wrong, sex with ordinaries is great – I'm sure you and Logan have…"

Max interrupts quietly, "…well actually, we were never like that… and then the virus came… It was just never the right time."

"…Really? Not once??"

When Max gives a silent shake of her head, Syl shrugs her shoulders and decides to continue, "Yeah well, ordinaries are great. In 'conventional' situations. But when heat's involved… you can only go X5. Built-in stamina and all…"

Max feels like Syl's sharing too much.

"… and besides, you won't have to explain the situation. I mean, you can't actually say to an ordinary, 'hey I'm part feline and I go into heat and that's why I want nothing more than to hump you right now, but don't think this means anything more to me than just plain sex'... That's gotta be the worst pick-up like in history."

Max, guiltily thinking of Rafer, has no choice but to agree. _He was sweet. But he wouldn't understand. And even __Logan__… Maybe that's why I didn't go to him... God, can Syl be right?_

Syl, unaware of Max's inner pondering, gabs on, "Of course, I'm lucky that I constantly have an X5 at my disposal… But Maxie, guess what, now you can have the same luxury…"

Max snaps out of her Rafer-Logan musing to deliver her snappy reply, "What are you saying?"

"It's time to go heat-buddy-huntin', baby sis. Take a look around! This place is practically crawling with 'eligible' X5s. Take your pick!" Then she leans in to whisper, "Personally, though, I think you should go with Alec."

Max frowns, "Alec?!? Why do you keep bringing him up?"

"It makes perfect sense, Maxie. Out of all the X5s here, you're closest to him. You probably trust him the most. And from what I've seen, he's a decent guy who cares about you." Then, Syl adds with a smirk, "Plus, it doesn't hurt that he's pretty…"

Max has a flashback on her conversation with OC. Back then she said that Alec drives her crazy with his mere breathing. _Ok, so I can tolerate him now._

_More than tolerate him, __Max__, you rely on him! Come on, you've seen how reliable he's been…_

Max feels betrayed by her conscience and decides to ignore it. "Look, Syl, no offence, but I can't just have sex with anyone. It makes me feel, well, kinda dirty…" Syl nods at that, understanding. "And besides, Alec and I… we can't just have sex and not be awkward in the morning. We're not at that stage…"

Syl looks at Max, urging her to elaborate.

"… We're not that comfortable with each other. We're not like you and Krit. We're not… well, we're not like that, ok?" …

***

"Why not?" Krit looks at Alec after the other X5 explains exactly why making the heat deal with Max is out of the question. Basically, the list includes: Max's a training nun, Log-boy's ever presence in the picture, and Alec's wish not to have his booty imprinted with the soles of Max's boots (at least, not in a non-sado-masochistic kinda way). 

But Krit doesn't seem to be digesting any of that, so Alec just says the first thing that comes to his mind.

"'Cause Max & I…" he plasters on his signature smirk, "…Well, we're 'not like that'."

A/N: Ok, I've realised that, in my original plan (in my head), these past 6 chapters take like a page in my head. I've realised that there isn't a plot yet!! Just shows how I can ramble on and on, huh (which you can tell from my long disclaimers and A/Ns anyway)? That's why I just decide to write this chapter quickly and get the M/A post-heat thing out of the way. Coz I actually have a plot in mind!

Anywhoo, whaddya think of the S/K relationship? Pretty twisted, huh? Do you think they're weird and their 'deal' completely sick? Basically I want them to have a special relationship. Way more than friends, not really siblings, but not really lovers. Kinda like M/A. And I don't want them (S/K and M/A) to realize that they're in love with each other yet, coz then the tension will be all gone! Also, what do you think should happen to White?


	9. The Lil' Talk

Summary: Max has a lil' talk with Alec.

Rating: PG-13.

Pairing: M/A, no question about it.

Disclaimer: not mine. DA's cancelled so should it matter?

A/N: sorry that I haven't updated for ages!! I've had this scene in my head for quite some time now, but I just haven't got the chance to write it down. It's not a long chapter, but I just really need it to conclude the M/A heat debacle and progress the story.

Dedication: to Alexandra Bruderlin, who loves my Syl & Krit, thanks girl! To Cloudburst for her very constructive review, you're too nice to me! And to Isilme for giving me her longest review!

**Chapter 8: The Lil' Talk.**

"'Never would've figured you for a lone brooder, Alec."

"Well, after all the times I've seen you do it, Max, 'thought I'd give it a try. Personally, I think it's overrated," Alec glances at Max with a smirk, "Makes me kinda horny, actually."

Max rolls her eyes and puts on her irritated-at-Alec face, "Trust you to link sex with everything." She comes up and sits down next to him.

"Only way to live, Maxie."

The two transgenics are now seated at the highest building in TC (the plaque at the bottom said 'Biocorp Medical Center') staring at the coming sunrise. Alec had come here after his little chat with Krit. He figured he needed time alone to clear his head; 'Alone' being the key word. Apparently, that is not to be since Maxie – the so-called Queen of Brooding at High Places – has chosen tonight to do one of her little sessions. She thought that she definitely needed one after her 'groundbreaking' conversation with Syl.

After several minutes of silent staring at the first tinge of pink in the horizon, Max decides to speak, "We need to talk."

"Talk away."

Max turns to face her companion. She can't read his face. "Listen, uh, about us and the, uh, heat…"

"Say no more, Max. It was just heat. Trust me, I've been through worst ones. Pheromones, you know. None of us could control it. It wasn't us." That statement is ended with Alec's characteristic self-assured smirk.

Max shrugs her shoulders and drops her gaze. It looks like this sort of thing has happened to Alec before. So it's no big deal. Oddly, she feels partly relieved, and partly disappointed. "Right, cause, you know, wouldn't want you getting the wrong idea."

Alec sighs then chuckles sarcastically, "Don't worry, Max. I know you're savin' yourself for Logan. You're practically a nun! God knows you can benefit from a little roll in the hay…"

"Urgh, what is it with everyone and their easy attitude with sex?!? You won't believe what Syl just told me…"

"Lemme guess, is she… doin' the dirty with Krit?"

"How did you…"

"'Think it might've come up in a little chat I had with Krit tonight. I can't believe Syl actually got the guts to tell you, though. 'Bet you kicked her ass, didn't you?"

"Actually she kicked mine." When Alec looks at her quizzically, she adds, "We were sparring."

"Yeah, well, apparently they have this special deal goin' on. Kinda sweet if you asked me."

"Don't even start. Just 'cause I know about it, doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Oh, come on, Maxie. What do you say you and me cook up a little 'deal' of our own, huh?" Of course this little remark is accompanied by Alec's cute lil' smirk and raised eyebrows. Any girl shouldn't be able to resist.

But of course, this is Max, the foremost expert at resisting any good things that might make her life less angsty and, hence, her mood less bitchy. She shoves Alec on the shoulders – almost pushing off the ledge – with an expected frown on her lips. "You wish, pretty boy."

Alec only replies with a continued chuckle.

None of them say a word for several minutes before Max speaks up again. "So, we ok?"

By now the sun has completely come up, spilling lights to both of their features. "Yeah, Max, we're good." *Insert Alec's grin here* "Now if you'll excuse me…" Alec starts to get up, "…I have some business to take care of."

Max puts a hand on his hand to stop him from getting up, "I just want you to know that… you know… I appreciate you not taking advantage of me. 'Saved us from a lot of mess."

Alec decides that this is one of those moments when he just has to swallow his smart-aleck comments. "Sure, Max, you're, uh, you're welcome."

And with a final squeeze of his hand, Max lets go of his hand. Alec stares at her back for a couple of seconds before walking away. Max continues with her thoughts for several minutes before taking off as well.

***

In another part of town, inside what looks like a government facility room (hinted by the vast greyness of the décor and the absence of furniture beside a desk and two chairs), stands White. He looks bored, like he's waiting for someone.

Suddenly the door opens and some men in suits walk in. White stands to attention, though the look on his face is hardly the look of reverence that a subordinate normally gives to his superior.

"Special Agent White?"

White nods.

The man in the stylish blue suit tosses a file to the table. "Here is your new assignment."

White picks up the file and opens it. Inside is a picture of Alec in a Manticore-issued grey shirt and fatigues. Beneath it is his designation.

Special Agent White smiles menacingly.

A/N: Ok, so that was obviously my attempt to insert some plot. I already have a vague idea on how I wanna use White. Wow, it's surprising that my reviewers don't really like White. 'Cause, yeah, Deck was a better villain, but White was just hot and funny. Hehe, I think I've been hanging out at The Broken World too much. Not to worry, coz I'm still a dedicated M/A. Anyway, this is pretty much like a concluding chapter for the first part of the story (ie. the heat). I want Max & Alec to go back to their old bickering selves (coz they're most fun that way) but grow closer to each other at the same time. I hope I've achieved that with their talk. I don't think they're in love with each other just yet, though. 

A/N2: I'm so happy with everyone's positive reaction to Syl and Krit! The funny thing is I actually didn't originally plan on bringing them to my story. Basically, I put them on the story so that – I know this is stupid – Alec can call Max 'Maxie' (see chapter 1: Maxie). But I've always been fascinated with Max's siblings and now I'm so glad I put them in!! They're so fun to write! Yeah, they're not a couple… yet. Just wait and see, 'k? 

Oh yeah, REVIEW please!!! I've almost finished the next chapter so reviews will make me write faster.


	10. The Girl

Summary: Max has a weird dream and Alec rescues an X5. Also, what is White up to?

Pairing: M/A, duh!

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Not mine. All belong to Cameron and Eglee who I'm still pissed off at coz they couldn't stop the show being cancelled. Oh and there's a reference to Jean Grey from X-men (oddly, my least favourite character!).

A/N: See, I updated so quickly!! I was planning to post this chapter with the previous one, but I couldn't finish it last night. Oh well, to make up for the very short previous chapter, here's a long one with slightly more plot.

**Chapter 9: The Girl**

Darkness.

Flashes of light, sounds of heavy breathing and running feet.

More darkness.

Some light, more heavy breathing, more running feet. But the surroundings can be made out now. It's a dirty street, full of garbage, a skeleton of a car lays deserted, barbed-wire fence in the background.

She knows this place! It's the streets of Seattle, not far from TC. What is she doing here in full daylight? Her body seems to go on an automatic sprint. Air comes in and out of her lungs desperately. And what is that feeling in the pit of her stomach? Anxiety? Fear?

Darkness again.

When the same image appears, the surrounding sound accompanies it. Many more running feet, not far behind her. Gunshots. Shoutings.

"Stop, you transgenic filth!"

Max suddenly realises what's going on. She's been exposed. She's now running for her life. How did she get there, though?

She braves herself to glance behind her. Sure enough, several men in grey suits, comm. links attached to their ears, guns held in their hands (some are even firing them), are in pursuit. She recognises one of them as White. He has this pleasurable look on his face. He enjoys the chase.

_Crap! How did I get here? How did I let myself be found?_

She picks up the pace to the point of blurring. Some more bullets are shot. A piercing pain stabs through her right abdomen. She puts one hand on it. Sure enough, blood stains her fingers. One of White's cronies has pulled a lucky shot and actually nabbed her on the stomach. Blood is streaming out, but she can't slow down to do anything about it. Her vision is getting fuzzy.

She hears sounds of shouting in the background. 'Death to the mutants!' And, 'Gas them all to hell!' The sound becomes louder as she continues to run. Pretty soon she can see a huge cross set up in front of Terminal City. The mob is parading angry slogans at the fence. 

_I gotta go to the supply tunnel. Max hears the voice in her head but, somehow, it doesn't sound like her._

She avoids the mob. It seems that she's lost her pursuers when she blurred. She runs toward the opening of the concealed supply tunnel. She's starting to feel dizzy. Her bleeding is not stopping. She knows that if she didn't get there soon, she'll pass out for White to conveniently find.

She picks up the pace, her vision is blurring and her legs are threatening to give out. 

She sees the opening. Then…

She hears running feet coming at her direction from behind. She probably has twenty seconds ahead of them. If she can reach the tunnel before they get there, she'll be home free.

She struggles to move her reluctant feet. She sees a figure coming out of the channel. It's someone she recognizes! Her memory can't register a name to that face though. _Who is that? 494?_

"494?"

And then she crashes straight at Alec before darkness engulfs her vision.

---

On her bed, Max awakes with a jolt and finds herself crashing… straight into the arms of Alec. 

It takes her a minute to realise that this all seems too 'familiar' (no pun intended to the psychotic-homicidal-maniac-NSA/CIA/FBI/special agent in-charge-of-everything White – gee, the man must have amazing amount of card space in his wallet, huh? And not to mention the gold-class membership to cult snake-o-loony). 

Wasn't she crashing into Alec a minute ago? And there was… White on her tail. And… she was wounded! On the stomach! Max quickly scrambles to check on her abdomen. 

Nothing but smooth skin there… She sighs in relief. _It was all a weird dream! God, I've been having a lot of those lately. Probably why I don't sleep…_

Then she notices her current companion in the room. Alec is still seated on her bed, amusement/bewilderment sketched on his face. He's probably wondering why she was furiously touching herself a moment before. She racks her brain as to why she could be waking up into his arms.

"Alec, what the hell are you doing here?!?"

_Aah__, so she's also not a morning person. "Oh come on, Maxie. Don't tell me you forgot our little breakfast date?" he puts on his hurt-puppy look that even Max finds hard to resist._

She's about to launch her nasty comeback when she notices that the front of Alec's jeans jacket is soaked with blood. Before she can think of anything, she leaps out from underneath the covers and furiously examines the stain.

"Are you hurt?? What the hell did you do this time?!? I swear, Alec, if this is one of your scams…"

Alec, however, is too preoccupied with the image of a half-naked Max to deliver a reply. Max's bed-wear – which is merely composed of tank top and tiny black panties – is conveniently revealed when she leapt out of the covers. _Oh, you gotta love the classics…_

And it certainly doesn't help that the barely-clad lady is now running her hands all over Alec's front side, trying to play nurse.

"Gee, Max, I never would've figured you for a panties-and-tank-top kinda girl. You look good, by the way. 'Been working out?"

When Max realises her state of undress, she gives a quick little gasp and proceeds to cover her bottom half with the sheets, all the while fuming at Alec.

"I can't find a wound."

"Yeah, well, this isn't my blood."

"Then whose…"

"That's why I came. Get dress, will you? I'll fill you in on the way." Alec gets up from the bed, turns his back on her, and waits.

"Alec, get out!"

"Oh, come on, Maxie. Nothing I haven't seen before. Besides, I'm not gonna look!" He chuckles, "You've shown me plenty already…"

Max hurls a pillow at the back of his head but says nothing. She climbs out of bed and grabs her jeans. It's been a couple of weeks since their lil' talk and she and Alec have pretty much returned to – what Max likes to call – their pre-heat routine: she's not really 'friendly' to him, but both know that they've got each other's backs. She pulls a shirt over her head.

"Any word from Syl and Krit?"

Alec shrugs, "Nope, still AWOL. They're probably pulling a heist somewhere. We can use the extra money." 

Syl and Krit have taken residence with Max in her small apartment ever since they came. It was a bit weird after Max found out that they were 'heat buddies'. For a couple of days she was actually expecting to walk in on them 'doin' the dirty' – as Alec put it – but, as far as she could tell, they weren't acting any different. So she decided to just drop it and enjoy living with her siblings again. Four days ago, though, they just disappeared, leaving Max a cryptic note that just said: 'Gotta take off for a couple of days, baby sis – we've got to take care of something. Don't worry, we'll be back in a couple of days.'

"It's not like them to just take off." She pulls on her jacket, "Done."

Alec faces her, "Good, let's go." He turns around again and tosses a bagel over his shoulders at her. "'Got you breakfast; freshly swiped from Martha Stewart's Bakery. Aren't you proud of our X6s?"

Max catches the bagel easily and takes a bite, "Aren't I always?"

***

On their way to what Max finds out later to be the infirmary, Alec fills her in on what happened. Apparently, he came across a wounded X5 as he was checking up the supply tunnel this morning. She had a gunshot wound to her stomach which she seemed to get from their friendly neighborhood Familiar. Before she passed out in Alec's arms, however, she managed to croak out his designation. Alec thinks that she might have been in his unit, but he can't really remember her.

Max literally comes to halt in the middle of the street when Alec finishes his story. _ MAJOR dé·jà vu. "It's my dream…"_

"What?"

"I dreamed about this, Alec; this morning, before you came. I was her in my dream. I mean, I saw as she was being chased by White and when she passed out after she saw you. It was like I was inside her body… What do you think this means?"

"'Beats me. Maybe some new Jean Grey mojo that comes with your runes?"

"Maybe…" Max is too busy with her thoughts to wonder who Jean what's-her-name was.

"Look, we'll worry about that later. Let's just find out who she is, ok?"

He and Max enter the infirmary. The transhumans have established it in one of the cleaner-looking former hospitals in TC. Roe, a transgenic similar to Marrow – but _sans_ the latter's inclination to establish a cult hooked on his blood – is the resident medic. He is currently putting away a transfusion kit that previously linked his blood vessel to that of the mysterious X5.

"How's she doing?" Max asks Roe.

"She's lucky the bullet missed any internal organs. She still lost a lot of blood, but my plasma took care of that. She'll wake up in a minute or two."

Max nods and looks at the X5. She looks a bit young to be an X5, 18 probably, or 19. She has shoulder-length brown hair and a creamy complexion that's slowly regaining its natural color. She's got cuts on her arms and her clothes are ragged, showing that White's probably got her on the run for some time. Max sighs, thinking of the other X5s out there that she can't save.

Alec also studies the girl. He's gotten a peek at her designation when he brought her to the infirmary. That's how he knows that the girl, despite her young age, is an X5. "Her designation's 913. It sounds familiar to me but I just can't place it."

Max nods, "We'll ask her in a minute. She's waking up."

The girl – X5-913 – starts to stirs. Her eyes twitch then slowly flutter open. She takes in her surroundings: the relatively dingy room (especially for an infirmary), the bed, the bandaged wound on her stomach. Then she sees the other occupants of the room: a juiced-up transgenic with veins popping all over his body, a female with a pretty face who's curiously pouting and… 494!

913 immediately scrambles to her feet, ignoring the 'uncomfortable' twitch in her stomach. 

"X5-913 reporting, sir!" she barks out at Alec.

Alec glances at Max before looking back at the girl. "Wow, at ease, soldier. We're not at Manticore anymore."

913 somewhat relaxes though she ignores Roe's demand to lie back down. She looks at Alec as if waiting for instructions. 

"Sit down. You have a hole in your stomach." 

913 looks at him as if unsure of what to do then, very reluctantly, sits back down on the bed. Roe comes over and fusses over her bandage while Max and Alec peer curiously at her. 913 tries very hard not to wince through her pain.

"Do you know him?" Max asks her, gesturing toward Alec.

913 looks at Alec as if the answer was very obvious. "Of course. X5-494. You were my CO back at Manticore."

"You were a CO?" that was Max.

"You were in my unit?" that was Alec.

"Well, yes, until I was sent on a deep-cover mission in '16."

Alec looks at Max and whispers, "That was before my little trip to psy-ops 'cause your brother took up amateur dentistry. 'Explains why I don't remember her, though. Psy-ops kinda screwed my memory."

"You don't remember me, 494?"

"Alec. My name's Alec. And, I can't believe I'm saying this, but you should pick a name for yourself."

"As if permanently? But I'm not going to any mission. Wouldn't that be irrelevant?"

"No, look, here's a tip. First rule in the outside world is: pick a name. See, this is Max. She named me…" he shoves Max to 913. "…and that freaky looking guy over there is Roe. We all have names out here. It's easier than calling you nine-one-three all the time. But hey, if you can't come up with anything, I'm sure Maxie here will give you a nice one, like Bullet-hole or Faint…"

"Nina."

"What?"

"My name, I pick Nina."

Alec looks at her and grins, "Well then Nina it is."

"Why 'Nina'?" Max asks.

913 – Nina – shrugs, "I don't know. That was what this old woman kept calling me. She didn't speak English, though."

"What were you doing out there anyway? How'd you end up with White on your ass?"

"Some of the other X5s tipped me about this place. And based on our compromised situation, I thought that it would be most strategic to re-group. I was suddenly pursued approximately five sectors from Terminal City."

Alec looks at Max, ""Looks like ol' Ames is still busy sending out the search party."

Max asks Nina, "Do you have any idea how many transgenics are still out there? Where are they concentrated?"

"I don't know."

Max nods, "Well, you're safe now. Why don't you lie down for a while? We'll arrange living quarters for you."

Nina looks reluctant but lies back down on the bed, "Thanks."

Alec gives his little smirk, "Yeah, well, welcome to Terminal City."

***

"So do you remember anything about her?" Max asks Alec outside the infirmary.

"No, not really, Max. She's probably the only one from my unit that I don't remember."

"That's weird."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't exactly CO of the year with all my trips to psy-ops. I'll ask around if anyone knows her."

"Poor girl, 'looks like she's been alone since she got out."

"Well not anymore."

***

Ames White is standing in a room filled with computers. Some of his men are typing away in front of the monitors. They show heat-imagery feeds from the streets of Seattle. So far today, they've caught three mutants. White is in a good mood. He approaches Otto.

"What's the stat on our mole in the inside?"

"The new one's just been activated, sir."

"Good, we need to dig up enough dirt on those freaks before we can launch our master plan."

"Yes, sir. What about him?" Otto pulls out a file on the computer showing Alec's face.

White smiles maliciously, "Otto, my friend… he'll be our key to 452's destruction." 

A/N: Ok, I hate introducing orig. character, but I promise you that I won't make Nina into a Mary-Sue and that she'll be really important to the plot. Um, what else? Oh, special gold stickers to anyone who knows where I took the name 'Roe' from! Anyone? Well, I'm a HUGE fan of war movies and Roe is the name of the medic in Band of Brothers (he's my favorite character and he's actually not fictional!). Ok, what do you think will happen next? Please review!! It'll make me happy and encourage me to write faster…


	11. Cupcake, Magazines, and Trannies

Summary: Max arranges quarters for Nina and Alec does a quick investigating.

Rating & Pairing: See previous chapters. Not changin' 'em.

Disclaimer: They all (except for a couple of orig. characters here) belong to Mr Double-T (Titanic and Terminator, that is), James Cameron and the Eglee dude. I ain't profittin' from a cancelled show.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I've got so many things goin' right now. Anywhoo, here's a new chapters. I kinda want it to give perspectives on the other inhabitants of TC. I actually planned on writing another scene in this chapter, but it just didn't fit. So yeah, it'll be in the next chapter.

**Chapter 10: Cupcake, Magazines, and Trannies**

Later that day, Max stops by the mess hall. She's checked with HQ and there is only one suitable place to quarter Nina.

"Gem?"

Gem looks up from the counter in the kitchen to face Max. It's past lunch time and she's cleaned up for the day. Now she's just waiting for Joshua to bring Liberty around. "Hey, Max, what's up?"

Max smiles and comes up to her. "Hey, Gem. Listen, I kinda need a big favour…"

"Oh-oh, will I like it?"

"I hope so. Here's the thing. Alec found a wounded X-5 this morning; girl, probably one or two years younger than you. She's from his old unit. Anyway, I was wondering if I could bunk her with you. I mean she can help out with Liberty if Joshua's not available…"

Gem nods, "Yeah, sure, Max. 'Got the extra room anyway. Just send her over anytime. I won't probably be there around dinner though." She explains with a smile, "Mess hall duty again. 'Guess you guys can't get enough of my Nachos and Guacamole…"

"Thanks, I really appreciate it."

"No problem."

"So what are you still doing here anyway?"

"Waiting for Joshua. He's bringing Liberty."

"So my big fella's been treating her right?"

Gem chuckles, "Yeah, Max. He's been the perfect gentleman: rocking her when she cries, burping her when she's full… I don't know how I can survive without him!"

They both smile quietly.

"Listen, Gem, I just want to thank you…"

"Max, I already told you, taking another transgenic's not going to be a problem."

"No, I mean about Joshua. You know how rough he's had it, what with Annie and all…" Max is sure that Gem knows about her; especially with the latter being so close to Joshua. "… Not to mention how I cooped him up in that house for a year… And now, well, I've never seen him happier than when he spends time with Liberty. So… thank you."

"Max, I don't think you should be thanking me…"

At that moment the lovable canine transgenic bounces through the door, Liberty on one hand and the cutest little cupcake on the other!

"Gem!"

"Hey, Joshua. How's my lil' Libby today? Did she give you any trouble?" Joshua puts Liberty in her arms and Gem starts to gush, "You've been a good girl to Uncle Joshy, haven't you, Libby?" 

Max watches the scene with amusement. She's never been around babies much. She can handle little kids, but she doesn't know how she'll do with a baby. It's remarkable how a single defenceless baby can completely change the demeanor of an X5 though. Max can see no trace of Gem's Manticore past and military upbringing whenever the latter's around her daughter; she just has this glow of a proud mom. Max wonders if she'll get that privilege one day. 

Joshua notices her, "Lil' fella! You're here! Good! It's a special day today."

"Hey, Joshua…" Max laughs as Joshua gives her a big hug.

"What's with the cake, Josh?" Gem asks, looking up from her baby. Max takes a seat on the counter.

"It's Liberty's birthday! She's three months old today. Father used to make cakes at birthdays. So I've made cake for Liberty. Here." He shoves the cupcake at Gem. It has pink frosting and rainbow sprinkles.

Max thinks that it's the sweetest thing she's ever seen and Gem is tearing up. "Oh, right, she's three months old today. I forgot…"

"Wait, there's more." Joshua pulls out a tiny candle from his pocket and sticks it to the cupcake. He rummages through the kitchen and finds some matches to light the candle.

"We should sing."

When both Gem (still teary-eyed) and Joshua look at her in confusion, Max explains, "Out here, humans have this song they sing at birthdays. It's kind of a tradition. It's easy, listen..." She starts to sing _Happy Birthday and the other two transgenics soon join in._

After about four repeats and endless hip-hip-hoorays (naturally, Joshua can't stop 'hip-hipping'), Gem is ready to blow out her candle.

"Make a wish, Gem."

"Huh?"

"It's another tradition. Before you blow out a birthday candle, you've gotta make a wish."

"Okay." She seems to contemplate it for a moment – her face breaks into this unreadable expression – before finally blowing out the candle.

Joshua claps his hands excitedly. "Now you eat cake, Gem. Joshua spent all morning making it…"

Gem smiles at him and slowly takes a bite. Max can see Gem making a shocked expression before quickly replacing it with a smile (though her face is turning quite green). "Hmm, it's good, Josh." She stifles a cough.

Max respects Gem more for that. Max very well knows her big fella's cooking skills. While he's excellent at making mac & cheese, the half-canine's not really sensitive to the 'natural' human tastes. For all she knows, that cupcake can very well taste like raw sheep entrails. Still, Gem manages to put on such a 'convincing' performance that Joshua beams like a kid getting his first A+.

"Anyway, I gotta blaze." Max jumps off the counter and strides toward the baby. "Happy Birthday, Liberty." Max puts one finger on Liberty's cheeks and is given a giggle in return. She looks up at Gem. "I'll bring the girl over to your place later on tonight. Thanks again, Gem. See you later, big fella."

"Bye lil' fella."

"Bye Max."

Max is almost out the door when Gem calls out, "Oh Max, I almost forgot, what's her name?"

 "It's Nina."

***

"Hey Tab, can I talk to you for a sec?" Alec comes up behind X5-535 who, at that moment, is on sentry duty at the east quadrant. 535 had been in his unit, though Alec doesn't know him well because the guy was transferred from another group later on in the program.

"Yeah sure, Alec. What's up?"

"Do you remember an X5 in our unit, designation's 913?"

Tab mentally searches his comprehensive memory bank, "913… Nah, can't say I do. Why?"

"Came across her this morning. Nasty hole in the stomach, courtesy of our buddy, Ames. Anyway, she remembers me but I'm coming out blank on her."

Tab shrugs, "Beats me, dude. She was probably way before my time. How'd she look like anyway? Hot?"

"Yeah, coz the gunshot wound look really works for her…" Alec answers sarcastically. But he reconsiders the mental image of Nina: brunette, huge almond-shaped green eyes, creamy skin... _Yeah she's not half bad… "I don't know, I guess… cute?"_

"Yeah? Well I ain't saying no to a set up. Between you and me, I haven't gotten laid in weeks, dude!"

Alec replies, more to himself, "You're not the only one." Tab doesn't seem to catch that. Alec rubs his hands together and grins at Tab, "Yeah, well, thanks anyway. Ok, take care, pal."

He is about to turn and leave when Tab calls out to him, "Hey, Alec, 'think you can swipe me some magazines? It gets pretty boring and, uh, lonely here after a while."

He chuckles, "I'll see what I can do."

***

Alec spends the rest of his day going around and asking a couple more trannies about Nina:

274 or Dash – who he has to spar with before she gives her answer – does not remember Alec, let alone Nina.

          _"Hey, do you remember X5-913? Girl, kinda young, she was supposed to be in our unit?"_

_            "OUR unit? I don't think so, pretty boy. 'Think I would remember you."_

Later on, he remembers that Dash went in and out of psy-ops so many times he's surprised her brain hasn't turned into jello (_Aah__, jello, one of the wonders of the outside world – how DO they keep on wiggling?). She was an awesome fighter... she just had this teensy tiny little problem with authority._

Cruncher (yeah, Max named him 'cause of his ability to crunch probabilities) – who often served as logistics for his unit back in the days – says that his objective was the stats, not the soldiers.

          _"Sorry, __Alec_.___ I got strict directives not to fraternize with the X5s. You were all just numbers to me... But, if it makes you any better, I predict – 70% certainty – that you won't get yelled at by __Max__ tonight."_

_            "That's always nice to know."_

He even goes ahead and asks if Tux the bartender might have heard anything.

          _"Nope, nothin' on 913._ But if you're interested, some X6s got a wager goin' on the shape of Mole's tongue. So far, blue AND split's up by fifty."__

_            "Kids... always entertainin' themselves. I'll put five on blue and split."_

By the end of the day, Alec is even more curious about Nina.

"How come no one remembers you?"

He decides to go to HQ and asks Dix to hack into her Manticore files. _That'll give some answers._

A/N: Ok well, not much happenin' there. But I swear, these scenes have a purpose, which I'm not gonna reveal just yet. Anyway, I wrote about Liberty's birthday to give some warm fuzzy feeling and basically to let Max think about the first trannie baby born in the outside world. Anyway, tell me your thoughts, ok? What do you think should happen (or is happening)?


	12. Mutants

Summary: Max gets to know Nina then joins Alec for a late-night viewing of our (well, my) favorite mutant movie. Also foreshadows for the return of Syl & Krit.

Disclaimer: All belongs to the great Mr. T (Titanic & Terminator), who I'm still pissed off at for turning Max into a blubbering schoolgirl for the sake of old-man-Logan's ego. Climb out of the cradle, will ya? Anyway, there are also a bit spoilers for X2. I LOVE that movie! I have such a crush on Pyro. Damn, he's hot!

A/N: Oh, gosh, haven't updated for ages. I dunno if anyone's still interested. I've got this on my mind for ages but I promised myself that I wouldn't write any fanfics until I finished all my assignments. But anyway, here I am, with a super long post! Hope y'all enjoy it!

**Chapter 11: Mutants**

"Dix, just the man I want to see!" Alec walks up behind Dix, who's sitting in front of the computer. "I kinda need a favor, buddy..."

"Yeah, sure, Alec, what do you need?"

"Can you hack into Manticore, look up some files for X5-913?"

"The X you saved this morning, right?" Dix starts to type.

"Yeah... Apparently she was in my unit, but I can't find anyone who remembers her."

"Huh, that's a pickle. I'll see what I can do." Dix manoeuvres the computer – clicking and typing – while Alec stands back and watch. "It's not gonna be easy, everything kinda got fried with the fire. They've loaded the backup into the mainframe, but it'll be tough to hack; lots of firewalls." 

"How long do you think it'll take?"

"A couple of hours, a few days, months... who knows? Depends on the type of barriers they put up. When do you need it by anyway?"

"Oh, anytime… I was just kinda curious."

Alec slumps down on the sofa, stretching out his legs in front of him.

"Listen, Alec, this is gonna take a while. Why don't you head home? I'll give you a call if I find something."  

"You sure?"

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead. You X series are never good with the waiting, anyway."

"Thanks, pal."

***

It's already dark by the time Max stops by the infirmary to pick up Nina. When she comes in, Max sees Nina sitting on her bed. She appears to be... talking to herself?

"Ni-na... Nee-na... Nin-na..." the former X5-913 seems to be trying out her name, "Ni-naa?"

Max smiles at that. She never knows what it feels like to have a new name. She's had her name for as long as she can remember. Her siblings thought that they'd be more like a family if everyone's got their own names. _It must be really weird, having a new name, when all your life you've only been called by a designation._

"Hey, how're you doing?"

Upon hearing Max's voice, Nina scrambles to stand, seemingly embarrassed to be caught talking to herself.

"Uh, yeah, good."

"Bullet wound ok?"

"Yeah, that medic patched me up real good."

"Great. I found you a place to crash. You ready to go?" Max waits for Nina to nod before walking out of the infirmary.

Nina follows her, clutching her abdomen. It doesn't hurt that much anymore, but it still pains her to walk. She doesn't want to give the impression that she's a weak soldier, though, especially since this female in front of her seems to be in charge. Nina does her best to look tough.

They walk for several blocks without saying a word.

"Where's 494?"

"Alec. His name is Alec. You know, you gotta start calling people by their names. We're not just numbers anymore."

 "Okay… Um, Max, isn't it?"

"Yeah, and you're Nina. See how nice it is when we use names?"

Nina just nods as they enter Gem's house.

"Well, this is the place. You'll be living with another X5. Her name's Gem and she has a baby..." Nina's eyes turn wide at that. Max explains, "Breeding program." Nina nods. "Yeah, first trannie baby born on the outside world. We're all so proud of her. Anyway, her name's Liberty. Gem's usually on mess hall duty, so she won't be around much. And Liberty's usually with Joshua – you'll meet him later on – so you pretty much have the house to yourself."

Nina says nothing. Max walks to one of the bedrooms, "Now I'm guessing that this is your room…" She sees that Gem has made the bed and has even put fresh flowers (well, as fresh as you'll get 'em in TC) on the night stand.

Nina walks around the room, observing the place.

"All this... this is just for me?"

"Yeah, we give better services than Manticore."

Nina just nods. The girl still seems to be fascinated by the room. Max doesn't blame her, considering the miniscule concrete cells they got back at the 'Core. 

"So anyway, are you hungry? Gem's cooking Nachos for dinner if you want to eat something."

"Okay." Nina follows Max out of the room. When they've reached outside, Nina suddenly speaks up, "Hey, Max, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

Nina looks at her with puzzlement, "Are you the CO around here?"

"CO? Hell no! We're not Manticore, ok? So you can screw the chain of command. Do anything you like. Don't address people as 'sir' or 'mam' or whatever…"

Nina contemplates this, "I don't know if I can get used to this..."

"Hey, you were out for a year before you came here. You didn't follow anyone's orders, did you?"

"Well, no, but I was always searching for my unit. 49 – I mean, Alec – is the first one I've seen."

"I still can't believe that Alec was a CO! Tell me, did he pull the old 'you are a unique soldier, unlike any other?' line on you?"

Nina looks confused, "No, he was a great CO. He excelled at everything, followed orders perfectly, successful at missions..."

Max thinks that Nina may have mistaken Alec for another twin. _Who knows, maybe __Ben__ had another one! _

"Alec? Following orders??"

"You know him well, Max?"

"Well, he's kinda been tagging along ever since the fire..."

"Maybe he sees a strategic advantage in staying close to you?"

"Yeah, in getting bitch-slapped all the time! But… I guess I'm kinda used to him by now. First time I met him? Easily the most irritating person I ever met. He was such a smart-ass. So cocky and all 'hey ladies, check me out!' And he kept butting in where he didn't belong..."

"'Sounds like he's changed. I don't know, Max. I haven't seen him since my mission. Someone said he went to re-indoctrination. I never found out why..."

Max feels like she probably shouldn't divulge Alec's personal story of Rachel to this stranger.

"So how did you two meet?"

"Manticore paired us off for their sick and twisted breeding program."

"So are you two...?"

"What?"

"Well, you know, 'partners'?"

"Me and Alec? God, no! We didn't even... back at Manticore, we never... you know… we were never like that."

"Okay..." Nina looks placid before slightly breaking into a dreamy smile, "Great!"

Max catches that. She frowns before she opens the door to mess hall.

_Figures._

***

Alec's plan for the evening is to spend some quality time with his boob tube. He's moved into Joshua's apartment about a week ago after Max kicked him out of his place to make room for more trannies. Joshua took him in on one condition. Since the big fella's not a big fan of "Alec's noisy hot medium" (courtesy of the last time they lived together), he told the X5 to install it in his own bedroom.

At the moment, the fine-looking transgenic is sprawled on his bed, munching on a box of Lucky Charms the Original had managed to smuggle in. He puts a green leprechaun-shaped marshmallow in between his fingers and holds it up against the light.

"Top of the mornin' to you, Mr. Charms," he says in his best Irish accent before popping the chewy leprechaun into his mouth. "Hmm, sugary goodness…"

On the screen is a pre-pulse special marathon of the X-Men movie series (they managed to get up to X3 before the pulse shut them down). Apparently, ever since the siege began, the mutant theme has grown increasingly popular – hey, people are curious and where else can they turn to other than the good ol' tube? In order to minimize pro-mutant feelings, though, the stations have decided to put shows like the X-Men on the wee hours of the morning. 

Alec finds it especially amusing that they're portraying mutants as having laser eyes and adaman-whatchamacallit claws. _Yeah, if only... _

Still, he thinks that the shape-shifting chick's really hot and he definitely has a soft spot for the one who can't touch people. _Hmm, why DO I always go for the ones I can't have?_

Alec's up to X2 when Max walks in. She leans in on his doorway and looks as if it's perfectly natural for her to be there.

"Well?"

"Glad to see you too, Maxie. To what do I owe the pleasure of your company? You know, at three in the morning?"

Max shrugs. "It's not like we sleep anyway."

"No, Max, **you don't sleep. ****I don't have shark DNA. So I need my beauty sleep."**

Max glances at the TV and the box of Lucky Charms, "Well, I don't see you snoozing there, sleeping beauty."  Max looks at the screen. A girl just walked through walls and another dude just shish-ke-bobbed a bunch of military guys with his very long claws. "God, what kind of junk are you watching?" 

Despite her condescending sneer though, Max flops down on Alec's bed, eyes fixed on the screen.

"I'll have you know that this 'junk' is directly related to our cause. It's about a bunch of mutants just tryin' to get by in a world that hates them. This bald guy got most of 'em holed up in this fancy-schmancy private school, tryin' to shield them off from the nasty humans… You know, if you switch baldie here with you, we can almost call it 'Maxie and the Great Trannie Siege of 2021'."

"Hey, it would've been so much worse if we'd scattered and run!" Max snaps back testily.

"I know, I know. I was just kiddin'. Lighten up, Maxie! I'm sure a sense of humor is in that tough-chick shell somewhere…"

Max rolls her eyes, "Whatever… Did you find anything on our girl?"

"Nope. A big fat zero. No one remembers her! I swear it's like she was never at Manticore. I got Dix to dig around the Core's old files, though. He'll beep if anything comes up."

"Great…" Max makes herself comfortable on his bed and eyes his collection of snacks. "Give me that." Max yanks the box of Lucky Charms from Alec's hands, "I'm starving. 'Just spent the night babysittin' your girl. I don't know how anyone doesn't remember her.  All she did was yapped."

"What can I say, Maxie? My unit was blessed with the art of oral eloquence."

"Eloquent, my ass! There was only one subject she was interested about." Max looks at him with condescension on her face.

"What? If I had to take a stab at it, I'd say she was wondering... about the shape of Mole's tongue?"

"What IS the shape of Mole's tongue, anyway? I heard blue and split's up by a hundred bucks. I don't think it's blue, though. 'Kinda got a peek of it once when he yelled at me for sitting on his cigars. But anyway, no, Nina was asking about YOU a lot."

"Ahh, it's always nice to have admirers."

"I swear it's like she's been idolizing you ever since Manticore."

"I was an inspiring leader."

"And yet you don't remember her!"

"Hey, this ain't making sense for me too. I NEVER forget a face… usually."

"Well, are you gonna go for it?"

"What?"

"Nina!"

"I don't know. She is kinda cute."

"A bit young for your taste, don't you think?"

"Oh, come on, Max! You, out of all people, should know that age doesn't matter when it comes to relationships!"

"Whatever. Just don't screw up like you did at Jam Pony. We need all the soldiers we can have without you going around breaking all their poor little hearts."

"Hey, I never told ANY of them that we were exclusive. 'Couldn't help it if they made all these little assumptions…"

Max just shrugs and turns her attention back to the TV. A group of people are sitting around in a living room. A spiky-haired dude just gave a wonderful display of turning scalding hot tea into a cup-shaped icicle. But that's not what catches her eyes, "Hey, that kid kinda looks like Ben when he was younger!"

"Yeah, right. Well, I sure didn't look like that kid. Hey, what is he doing? Oh, I can't believe this, he's ratting them out! He's ratting out his own brother! That lil' snitch!"

"I swear it's the spitting image…" Max still goes on about the uncanny resemblance between Ronny Drake and young Ben. She shakes out her thoughts and shrugs. _Maybe __Ben__'s got dozens of twins. Who knows? "So what's this bitch about again?"_

Alec tries to explain to her with one eye on the screen. "I told you. It's about this group of mutants. A bit overdone, if you asked me. Like, see that, he just blew out a couple of police cars! Well, that guy's supposed to have this 'power' to control fire. 'Wish Manticore thought of that when they made us. It'd be a handy talent. Plus that just LOOKS cool. Whoa, see that car fly!"

Max rolls her eyes at his child-like excitement.

"And that guy cowering away on the ground? He can make ice with his hands. Good party trick. And his girlfriend there has 'deadly' skin. She sucks the power out of anyone she touches. Like see there? Oh, why does she have to ruin that dude's barbecue? Yeah, well, basically she can kill anyone by a simple touch…" Alec pauses as he contemplates what he just said. "Hey, that sounds kinda like your thing, Max! Maybe this isn't that fictional after all."

"Shut up! Don't get me started on that one. You know that it's all your fault, right?"

"Hey, I already told you. I DIDN'T give you the virus. And I already apologized for that lab guy. What else do you want me to say?"

Max doesn't answer. She just fixes her gaze on the TV. To Alec's surprise, she doesn't look pissed. She just looks… sad. 

Alec decides to go soft on her. "How're you going with Logan anyway? He's searching for the cure? Fighting the good fight?"

Max sighs, "I don't even know. I haven't seen him since that night at OC's. And I've just been so busy here that I don't really have time to think about it. 'Guess it gets easier everyday. I mean, it's all for the best, right?"

Alec doesn't know what to say. What does Max expect to hear? That she and Logan have been completely wrong for each other from the start? That a relationship with an ordinary is completely doomed? That she deserves someone who understands her better? Someone who's her equal? Someone like…

Alec figures that Max won't want to hear any of this. So he just says the first thing that comes to mind. "Sure."

After that, neither of them says anything more to each other. They just go back to watching the TV quietly. When Alec turns to look at her at the end of X2, he finds that Max has fallen asleep.

"'Guess, you sleep after all, sharkie."

He grabs a blanket and covers her with it. She shifts slightly and turns on her side, facing the middle of the bed toward Alec. After she's all covered up, Alec lies down on his side, facing her. He studies her face. 

Alec decides that he likes watching Max sleep. When she's awake, her face is always lined with worry and stress (and not to mention the bitchy remarks that come out of her mouth). But now, she just looks so serene and peaceful. He closes his eyes and, within a few minute, falls into deep slumber.

They remain like that for the entire night and that is exactly how Syl and Krit find them the morning.

A/N: So whaddya all think?? What do u think's gonna happen with Nina? What do you think of X2? What do you think of the return of Syl & Krit? I accept any comments/suggestions that you have… So yeah, review away!


	13. Cute

Summary: Syl & Krit find Max & Alec on a bed together. What happens now?

Disclaimer: All belong to the boat dude and Eglee. Not sayin' more coz I ain't profiting from this very time-consuming gig.

A/N: I'm SO SORRY that it takes me SO LONG to update. The thing is I've been on holidays and I don't write well if I'm not pressured. I'm back to college now but since this is only the first week, I haven't had much pressure. So you have no idea how long it takes me to write this chapter! Anyway, to make up for my long update, I'm posting two chapters at once!! I was gonna put them up as one chapter but thought that it was too long. The story is progressing VERY SLOWLY, but that's just how I write. I'm a detail freak. Hope you like 'em. And hope anyone's still reading.

A/N2: Fichic, Iceman's younger bro is indeed played by the same actor who plays young Ben. His name's James Kirk and he's also in Final Destinations 2 with the actress who plays Rain in Love in the Vein. So there you go. A bit of trivia on me. And Suki, thanks for mentioning me in your A/N. It's really flattering.

A/N3: I notice that there hasn't been many new M/A stories. Come on guys, we need to keep up the good fight.

Dedication: to Cloudburst who's always been my loyal reader and thorough reviewer. Your review is the one that motivates me to write this chapter.

**Chapter 12: Cute.**

Syl and Krit have never seen anything so… cute. They can't believe that they're using the word 'cute', but there's simply no other term for it.

As soon as the two X5s got into TC that morning, they immediately went looking for Max. After five days missing and nothing more than a hastily-scribbled note to explain their whereabouts, Syl and Krit did not expect Max to be happy.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) they never got a chance to get their heads chewed off because Max wasn't in this morning. She wasn't in her apartment and she wasn't running around TC, barking orders at the occasional trannie.

Syl and Krit were confused. There was only one place to check and only one other person unaccounted for. _But __Max__ WOULDN'T be there, would she?_

But alas, what other sight should greet them as they enter Alec's bedroom but that of Max and Alec, caught in something that can only be described as an embrace. They are both lying facing each other, with their faces only inches apart. Max's head is resting on Alec's outstretched left arm while his right arm is hooked possessively around her waist. Their legs are tangled. Both look VERY comfortable. Syl and Krit can't bring themselves to wake them. They just look so, well, cute! So the two 'siblings' just stand there and wait, each suppressing an amused grin.

While Syl and Krit are standing around looking like they've been hit over the head by the happiness hammer, Max begins to stir awake. She slowly opens her eyes and finds herself staring at someone's face. It takes her approximately eighteen seconds to register that that someone is Alec. 

Considering the proximity of the two bedfellows, and given the 'uniquely volatile' nature of their relationship, one would think that Max would immediately jump and bolt away from that bed – tripping ungracefully on the sheets, if need be – as soon as she recognizes Alec next to her.

But alas, since this has been such a strange morning for all those currently awake in Alec's bedroom, Max instead spends the next minute staring silently at Alec. She looks like she's in a daze. She can feel his steady breaths blowing against her face and finds them strangely relaxing.

Max decides that she likes seeing him sleep. _He looks so innocent. Just like __Ben__ did when we were back at Manticore… _

_And it also helps that smart-ass retorts are not shooting out of his mouth._

She continues to examine him. _You know, you really ARE kinda cute when you're quiet. _

Max is just about to brush away a stray hair that falls across his eyes when the implication of what she just thought suddenly strikes her.

_Cute?__ Did I just call __Alec__ 'cute'?!? Oh My God!! What the hell is __Alec__ doing in my bed anyway?_

She retracts her hand from its hovering position above Alec's face and abruptly sits up. She looks down at herself and Alec. 

_Clothes.__ Good. Clothes are good. And we are wearing them. Okay, everything seems intact and nothing looks, uh, 'exposed'.  _

She looks around the room.

_OK, blue bed-covers, big-ass TV, assorted breakfast cereal boxes, Syl & Krit smiling like idiots in the corner, leather jacket tossed carelessly over a chair… Definitely NOT my room._

_Wait, what was that one before the jacket and the chair?_

Max quickly averts her gaze to the corner and, to her horror, finds herself facing her two grinning siblings.

"Good morning, Maxie. Had a nice nap?"

"We didn't wanna wake you, lil' sis, what with you being so cozy with Alec there."

"Yeah, we can only GUESS what you two were doing ALL NIGHT."

"Wh… Wha… What are you two doing here?" After several seconds of stuttering, Max finally finds her voice and, at the same time, leaps out of bed. She ends up tripping ungracefully on the sheets.

The combined impact of her fall and her subsequent, uh, 'verbal pollution' is enough to waken the last sleeping transgenic in the room.

Alec – cute bedhead and all – slowly rises from bed and takes a look around: Max is looking all red and violated on the ground while Syl and Krit are grinning smugly in the corner. Alec just shrugs, "Syl, Krit. Back already? How's the outside world?"

"Oh, you know, desolation and decay at every turn. 'Can't complain, really. But it looks like we missed out on the excitement here." Krit slightly nods at him and Max – who's still busily untangling herself from the bed sheets – with a wink.

Alec looks at Max and nonchalantly answers, "What? Me and Max? Yeah, Maxie here kinda got lonely last night and decided to pay me a little midnight visit. Ain't that right, Maxie? You just can't keep away from this hot body?"

Syl cracks up when Max starts to fume. When asked later of the incident, the three trannies swear that they saw steam coming out of Max's ears.

"I… did not… get… lonely." Max finally emerges triumphant from her battle with the rogue sheets. She gives Alec the dirtiest look she can muster. "First of all, I needed to see you about Nina. Second of all, I fell ASLEEP cause I was so bored watching your dumb-ass movie. Why the hell didn't you wake me up anyway?!? And third of all, 'hot body'??" Max pauses to find something to insult about Alec's body. But since she irritatingly finds none, she has to settle for, "You wish, pretty boy!!"

"Max, max, why'd you have to go and insult my assets? You just looked so cute with that drool sliding down your cheeks…"

"I do not drool."

"…that I couldn't BEAR to wake you up. It was a Kodak moment, really. 'Wish I had a camera handy. Besides, how could I wake you when you were using me as a human pillow?"

As Max delivers her acid reply, Syl whispers to Krit. "Do you think we should leave? Give these two love birds some privacy?"

"Guys…" Krit whistles to catch the feuding X5s' attentions. "We can always come back later, you know, if you guys want to, uh, get on to business."

Max turns to look at the two X5s, her eyes flashing and her nose flaring. "Not so fast. Where the hell have you two been? And what the hell were you doing, standing around there like idiots?"

Syl grins, "Nice to see you too, Maxie. We're fine, by the way. Almost got nabbed by sector police this morning, but we're good."

"Where the hell did you go anyway? And why didn't you tell me that you're leaving?"

Krit exchanges several glances with Syl. "Yeah, sorry about that. Well, like I said in the note, we had some, uh, urgent business to take care off."

Before Max can question them again, Syl says excitedly, "Actually, that's why we're here. We got you a present!" She throws a thin, rectangular-shaped box to her sister.

"You too, Alec" Krit hurls a similar-shaped box at Alec.

Still pouting, Max opens her box. Inside is an orange-colored cocktail dress. Alec finds a matching suit in his box. Both X5s look curiously at Syl and Krit.

"Uh, thanks guys, but we're not planning any TC Ball anytime soon, though I'll make sure to pitch in the idea with Mole."

Syl just rolls her eyes, "That's not all, smart-ass. Krit, show them the rest of their presents."

Krit pulls a piece of paper from his pocket and hands it to Max. She reads the squiggly writing printed on it, "Mr. Riley Fox requests the pleasure of your company to attend a Masquerade Ball to be held on the 31st of October on his estate in the… You're planning a heist, aren't you?!"

"Happy Halloween, Maxie!"

Alec whistles, "I don't know fellas. This Fox guy's a pretty big fish to fry. Guy's security's supposed to IMPOSSIBLE to crack. Probably 'cause no one ever gets close enough to see it."

"Which is why we're going to waltz in there with these babies and do a little recon first." Krit holds up another invitation card.

Max turns over the card, "This is addressed to 'Ms. A. Cassidy and date'."

Syl nods, "That's your cover, Maxie. We snagged the invite when we were lifting this diamond-studded lingerie from that Cassidy chick. She's off to Europe somewhere getting a botox, so you're in the clear. And Fox's invited every big player in Seattle. It's gonna be packed. I don't think he personally knows each of them by face."

Max waves her invite, "That was your 'urgent business'? You were pulling jobs?" 

Krit shares a look with Syl before answering, "Sure… Anyway, our fence has given a nice lil' shopping list for this Fox gig that can fetch AT LEAST 10 mill." Krit shoves another piece of paper at Max and Alec. There are about six items listed. "I figure the four of us can split up in two and take three each. We'll be in and out in an hour."

Alec whistles, looking at the list, "This is pretty impressive… First-edition Tolkien manuscript, last surviving Pollock, Garland's shoes… But, hey, who am I to say no to a challenge, huh?"

Max frowns, "We can't leave Terminal City to pull a job! Not all of us. There are too many things to run."

"Oh, come on, Maxie. You've been holed up in this dump for too long. And when was the last time you pulled a heist? I know you missed it." Syl remembers Max telling her and Krit of her thieving days. Both couldn't help notice this little spark in her eyes. That's why they planned this out for her. Their little sis needs a break from this 'running her own nation' gig.

"Yeah, these folks don't need babysittin', Max. No lame-ass military is gonna shut this party down anytime soon." Krit adds, "Besides, we'll be back in three, four days tops."

"I don't know…"

"Don't tell me you're scared, Max? I mean, you ARE kinda rusty in this cat burgling gig. Last time you got me stuck me in a closet for like, what, an hour, an hour and half?" Alec yanks the invitation card from Max's hands. "Maybe we better let you sit this one out. I'll find someone to go in your place."

That clinches it. Max isn't backing out anymore. She glares at Alec and hastily grabs the card back from him. "I'm nailing this bitch."

And then she walks out, leaving the rest of them to follow.

A/N: I followed a suggestion from an anonymous reviewer about having Syl and Krit do a heist. Obviously I think it'd be awesome if the four of them can do this heist together. I decided that Max's dress should be orange because I want it to be a color that's unusual (as opposed to white, black, red, or blue). I thought Max's complexion would look great in orange. What do ya think? Also, I don't have, um, high class sophistication so I wouldn't know what kind of items would fetch well in the black market. So I have no idea if a Pollock, a Tolkien manuscript, and Dorothy's shoes are really worth that much. Anyway, hope people are still reading this. I still have tones of great ideas. I think I'm becoming too ambitious.


	14. Plan, Plan, and Plan

Summary: Three groups of people are making plans for the party.

Disclaimer: DA yada3x belongs to Titanic guy and this Eglee person. Obviously I'm not making any money from their creation.

A/N: This is kinda an intermission chapter. It should've gone with the previous chapter but I thought that it'd make the chapter way too long. It kinda explores other characters beside Max and the TC trannies. The next chapter shouldn't be too long coz I'm very excited in writing it. The scene has been in my head for ages.

**Chapter 13: Plan, Plan, and Plan.**

Mess hall is already packed when the four X5s enter. Good thing Joshua still has room on his table. Syl and Krit have gotten into an argument on the way over and are now sniping at each other, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings.

"I'm tellin' ya Syl, we should've lifted those."

"They were fake boobs, Krit!! They were in her chest before she probably decided on an upgrade! They're worth NOTHING on the market."

"Still, there's nothing wrong in keeping a souvenir."

"They were three pounds each!"

Max just rolls her eyes. She nudges Joshua and Gem on the shoulders. They follow her out of the table.

"Listen, I'm going with those three to pull a job in about a week from now. Do you think you guys can manage here on your own for a little while?"

Gem looks worried, "Pulling a job? Do you think that's wise, Max? They're still out there hunting for you."

"It'll only be for a few days. We've done this sort of thing dozens of times before. By the time they figure out what happened, we'll be back here already. Besides, the pull's pretty big. We kinda need the money."

"But, Max, what about here? What if they stormed in while you were gone?"

Max gets slightly distracted when she sees Alec approaching Nina back on their table. 

_Oh his turning on his charms now. Look at him. With his cheeky grin and his eyes all lit up.  I don't know what chicks see in him. _

_I don't._

_Really._

She suddenly realizes that Gem's said something. "Uh… don't worry. I'll get Mole to stock up the perimeters, get more men on sentry duty. I mean they've set up base here for almost a year before being discovered. I don't think the four of us being gone for a couple of days is going to make much difference. You guys are tough, you can hold this fort."

Gem is about to protest when Joshua interrupts, "Max's going with siblings. They watch your back. Joshua's not worried. Lil' fella just come back safe."

"Thanks Josh. Listen, I think we better keep this under wraps. Inform only a few people. Minimize chance of it leaking out." She looks at Gem, "We'll be fine, Gem."

"Just be careful, Max."

Max sneaks a glance at Alec again. He is now talking animatedly and is eliciting some giggles from Nina. Max swallows her uncalled-for annoyance. "So how's it going with Nina?"

Gem shrugs, "Like any other X5. She gets along with Liberty. That's good enough for me."

"Nina is very curious X5. Sad because other X5s don't remember her." Joshua makes his observation.

"Yeah, that's the strange thing about her."

The three of them shrug and make their way back to their table.

***

"Logan! Logan, are you in here?"

The tall blonde otherwise known as Asha walks into Joshua's former house. She has important information that she knows Logan will be really interested in. She is still with the S1W but lately finds herself doing increasingly more work for Logan and Eyes Only. It's not like she minds, really. Any time spent with Logan is good in her book.

Asha doesn't really know what it is about him_. Maybe it's because he cares so much. He doesn't need to be. Unlike most of the people he and Eyes Only are fighting for, __Logan__ actually has enough to survive more than comfortably in the post-pulse world. But instead, he throws himself for the cause of humanity: to right the wrongs and help the downtrodden. It's just so… noble._

She walks around the house and is surprised to find that he's not perched in his usual spot in front of the computer. She finds him in the next room, bent over in his shorts and T-shirt, trying to strap on his exoskeleton. 

"Oh, hey, Asha."

Asha smiles and walks over to him. "Here, let me get that for you."

"Thanks." Logan watches the blonde as she kneels in front of him and carefully fixes his legs on the support machine. "So what do you have for me?"

"Well I met up with that guy who contacted Eyes Only a month ago. Apparently, he just uncovered some very shady practices going down in his company. 'Sounds like it's something big. He'd like to come forward but he doesn't have any proof. So he wants Eyes Only to do a little digging, get some solid evidence, and expose them. In return, he promised to get his top scientists to look at Max's DNA markers." Asha finishes her job and stands up. She extends one hand to pull Logan up.

"Do you think he's the real deal?"

"Seems to be, Logan. He's pretty scared."

"What about the virus? 'Think he can get a cure?"

_There you go. His top priority. No 'Thanks, Asha. That was a good job you did.' Nope. It's always about the cure._

Asha decides to swallow her annoyance. "I don't know. But he IS one of the CEOs for Hermecon. It's a company specializing in viral and biological engineering. 'Sounds like a pretty good shot to me."

"So when have you arranged the meet?"

"Well, like I said, he's pretty scared. He'd be crossing some very important people if Eyes Only came through. So he wants us to meet him in a public place, on this big social event."

"Which one?"

"This Riley Fox guy is having some sort of party on the 31st. Most of Hermecon's big shots are invited. He said he'll meet us there to exchange info. Do you think you can score tickets?"

Logan is now sitting in front of the computer while Asha stands in front of him. "I might be able to. My uncle Jonas used to have a business connection with Fox a while back. I'll just have to pull some strings. I should be able to get us invited."

"Great. So… am I going with you?" _Hmm, a night alone with __Logan__… I wouldn't mind that…  Even if it is to get info for helping him shack up with his 'not-like-that' girlfriend. Does he ever think about ANYTHING besides _Max___??_

"You're the one who recognizes him, Asha."

Asha gives him one of her sweetest smiles. "Ok, then I need to borrow some money to buy a dress."

***

In another part of town, a room filled with techie guys buzzes with activity. One of them – a fellow named Agent Darrow – has just discovered a very important development that he knows will greatly interest his boss. 

Ever since the transgenics have been exposed, Darrow's superiors have changed their directive. Instead of wiping any evidence for their existence, the big suits have ordered the agents to consolidate the genetically-engineered super soldiers. They figure, since the public already knows about them, why not take advantage of their superior skills and continue with what Manticore planned. It's not an easy job, considering the military's willingness to blow them all to smithereens and the public's obvious opposition in using the 'mutants' as super soldiers. That's why the agents' operation has been as covert as possible. They've been told to only target at the apparent leaders of the transgenics. X5-452 is one that greatly interests the special agent in charge of this operation. And the information that Agent Darrow holds in his hand happens to involve her.

He carefully knocks on the door that leads to one of the back room. As he enters, he catches the last part of his boss' conversation on the phone. The special agent in charge seems to be saying something in a foreign language; it sounds very much like 'Fedostol'. Agent Darrow shrugs his curiosity away. He's been taught not to wonder too much when it comes to his superiors.

Special Agent in charge White turns to look at the intruding agent, "This better be good."

"Sir, our mole has indicated that X5-452 – along with X5-494, 701, and 471 – is leaving Terminal City to pull a heist on the Fox Estate in a week."

"Do you have confirmation for this?"

"Affirmative, sir." Agent Darrow then proceeds to show White the proof for his information.

White smiles, "Excellent. We'll deploy three units to recover them in the middle of their 'heist'. Contact Fox and inform him of this development. I'm sure he'd be more than willing to set up an arrangement with our agents."

"Yes, sir."

When Agent Darrow doesn't budge for several seconds, White grows impatient. "Well, what are you standing around for?! Go do what you are paid to do! I need to make some phone calls."

A/N: For the record, I like Asha. I dunno why so many peeps hate her guts. But then again, I am an M/A and most Asha-haters are M/L. It's kinda fun for me to see Logan from her perspective. Must be frustrating for her though I completely understand why she likes him. I think I'm turning into a L/A. Anyway, whaddya all think of Asha & Logan? Also, I'm getting more into White's situation (and his mole). I don't really wanna get into the whole familiar thing coz I'm honestly not that interested in them. I know I've asked this before, but what do ya think should happen with good ol' Ames? Also, I see that I'm approaching review number 100. So please review, guys, I really wanna hit that hundred mark. Otherwise I won't know if people are still interested/not.


	15. Marks and Covers

Summary: It's the party! Syl and Krit have a little 'sibling rivalry' going on, White's on the lookout for our heroes, and Max & Alec make their grand entrances.

Disclaimer: Copyright for Dark Angel belongs to several lucky people like Titanic dude and Eglee guy. I own nothing besides the plot and several characters like Riley Fox – though I gotta admit that I took his name from Buffy's Season 4-5 boyfriend, Riley Finn. There are also references to the Simpsons, I Love Lucy (though VERY VERY slight – in fact, I'll give you a cookie if you spotted it!), and a very famous western movie starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman (haven't personally seen it, but heard it was good – Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 100% rating!).

A/N: Dear, I'm disappointed with myself by how long it takes me to write this. It's been in my head for ages, but I just never had the motivation to write it. Well, to make up for it, I'm giving you an extra long chapter!! I hope people are still interested…

A/N2: Thank you so much for allowing me to reach that hundredth mark, you guys!! Your reviews, as usual, blow me away. Just a few shut-outs. To Alexandra Bruderlin (who gave two separate reviews for one chapter!): I hope you enjoy some more Syl/Krit interaction here (I promise you it'll be S/K in the end). To Cloudburst: Thanks for taking the time to leave a thorough review, despite your busyness. And thanks to all the other folks out there who like my characterizations. Btw, I find some of your ideas for White really interesting, hehehe. Falling in love with Otto? Hmm…

A/N3: I made a tiny correction in chap 12. I put down the Fox party on the 31st of August when it's actually the 31st of October. Therefore it's a Halloween sort of Masquerade Ball and the timeline is 4 months after the siege begins.

**Chapter 14: Marks and Covers.**

Max stands in front of the mirror, fully dressed in the orange dress her siblings have picked out for her for this mission. She DEFINITELY thinks that orange is NOT her color. 

_Couldn't have they picked black or white or anything less… bright? And something with more material would be good._

She frowns as she stares at her protruding cleavage in the mirror.

_Alec__ is going to have a riot._

In addition to being low-cut, the dress is also strapless. After years of covering herself in dark inconspicuous clothes, Max feels quite, well, naked in this outfit. She self-consciously touches the back of her neck and turns around to check that her barcode is completely invisible. The four X5s had gotten it removed on a little trip to the laser parlor the day before.

In the five days before they had to leave TC, Max was kept busy organizing extra security with Mole, warding off Gem's worried warnings, getting Dix to hack off the blueprint for the Fox Estate, rescuing some X6s from the clutches of good ol' Ames, getting annoyed at Nina for wanting to come to their heist…

Max recalls Alec urging her ("It can't hurt, Max. She can be back up.") and her immediate dismissal ("No! We agreed that if we're going do this, it's just going to be the four of us. I'm not risking any more.").

Now, though, Max has to admit that some technical support would've been nice. Not necessarily Nina, but maybe Dix or Luke could've come and acted as their eyes and ear for when they go back in to retrieve their targets later tonight.

"Max, you ready in there? I know that it's a big shock to see yourself in something remotely, uh, 'feminine', but if we don't take off right now, we're going to miss the party."

Max just sighs as she hears Alec's voice through the bathroom door. After they got out of TC, she and her three partners-in-crime had checked into this cheesy motel (called 'Slumber's Paradise' for God's sake!) just outside of Seattle. Syl and Krit have gone ahead to the party, leaving Max approximately 30 minutes before she is due to arrive with Alec.

"Max? What are you doing? Havin' yourself a bubble bath? Come on, I'll gladly join you later."

Max frowns and gives the door a nasty glare. She tucks in some loose strands of hair into her bun and tries to smile.

_Okay, this won't be so bad. I just have to do a little schmoozing, make some intelligent remarks, give out a couple of polite giggles… Piece of cake._

"Max? Maxie??" Then, after a brief silence, "Fine. We'll just hang out here for the night. Order some porn, pop open a couple of brewskies, do that bubble bath thing that you love so much… Syl and Krit'll understand."

_Then again, I have to put up with __Alec__ and his wise-cracking ass for an entire night. Oh, Joy… Well, let's get this over with._

Max lets out a huge breath and walks out of the bathroom.

Alec is standing in the middle of the room, doing his tie, when Max comes out. He has to admit that Max looks REALLY good in a dress; a welcome change, really, from her regular leather-clad-sado-masochistic look. He lets his eyes roam her body and deliberately lingers on her nicely-defined chest.

"See, Max, it wouldn't kill you to step out of the leather once and a while. The dress really, uh, flaunts all your 'assets'."

Max doesn't miss the extra glance that he casts at her 'assets'. She walks toward him with an exasperated look, just stopping short in front of him. "Take a picture if you really like it, pretty boy, 'cause this is a one-time thing. Now close your mouth before I snap it shut for you." And with that, she hastily grabs his tie, pulls it tight on his neck, and walks out of the room.

Alec stifles a cough and loosens his tie. _Couldn't have Manticore stocked up more lady-like gene in her cocktail?_

"Alec, move your ass!"

"Yeah, I'm comin'. Keep your panties on." He grabs his jacket and follows her outside.

***

The Fox Estate is built on top of a small island off the coast of Seattle. There is a small roadway that connects it to the mainland, but other than that, the only way in is through the air or the water. The distance from the nearest coast to the island is about two miles. So anyone intending to break in has better be one helluva swimmer. Well, any HUMAN, that is.

Syl is just thinking about this as she and Krit stand around near the buffet table, memorizing the schematics of the room and the positions of the security cameras. She also notices several of those rent-a-cops with Uzis, walking around and guarding the entrances. Despite that, security at the door has been curiously lean, though. They have metal detectors and the sort, but other than that, they only checked for invites.

So far, Syl is bored. They've managed to locate two of their targets within twenty minutes of their arrival. From what Syl's gathered, this Fox guy seems to be a mucho exhibitionist. He puts most of his treasures in plain view – no doubt with the purpose of showing them off to his guests tonight – which just makes it way easy (almost disappointingly boring, really) for experienced cat burglars such as Krit and herself.  Fox might as well have put in his invitation: 'Calling all thieves! Scores galore!'__

They still need to locate their third mark, though. And they sure as hell won't find it by standing around, looking like party favors. Syl feels they should get moving, mingling with the privileged crowd, if need be. Unfortunately, as she shall find, that task is not going to be easy, considering her partner-in-crime's new found discovery of the OTHER treasures displayed so exquisitely on the buffet table.

"Krit, come on. We need to get moving. We still have that Tolkien to find."

"Wof? Com wif do daft laderf? Jusf give me a secf, owfkay?"

Syl turns to find her heist partner stuffed COMPLETELY in the mouth with crab-cakes & caviar. His hands hold numerous other trinkets that probably cost like twenty bucks a pop. He DOES NOT look very appealing. Syl whacks him upside the head. "Stay focused!"

Krit, who comes very close to choking on expensive crustacean, manages to muster an incensed look. "I am focused! But who was the one who decided to skip dinner and go straight to the party? Who was the one who said, 'Krit, we don't have time to eat! We'll be late for the party! There'll be tonnes of food there anyway. You can eat there'. Hah! It's your fault that I'm hungry." He finishes by popping a piece of pastry in his mouth.

"Well, hungry's one thing, but you looked like Homer in a donut shop! You were licking your hands for God's sake!"

"Uh, no offense to Gem and those other people at TC, but I really wouldn't call the thing we eat there 'food'. I mean there's only so much cold porridge and lumpy potatoes a guy can eat." He pauses to chuck some shrimp cocktail down his throat. "Hmm… Let me tell ya, this Fox dude sure knows how to throw a party. This is straight up five star grub. You should try some, Syl. Here." He picks up an oyster and feeds it to his fuming companion.

Syl's gotta admit that that was one good oyster. "Yes, that's very nice, Krit. We'll grab a nice big doggy bag for you later on. Now can we PLEASE get back to our mission?"

"Alright, alright." Krit grabs a couple more cakes and joins Syl to survey the crowd. "So what are we doing now?"

"Well, I figure that we bump shoulders with the elites and keep an eye out for that Tolkien. Maybe dig around the other guests to see if they've seen it around."

"Great. All we gotta do is charm the pants off some rich old folks and we'll be golden." 

Krit takes a look around the room. Most of the guests tonight are Seattle's most prominent socialites, whose age-range, as it seems, happens to fall between the late 30s and the early 70s. In fact, except for some professional gold-diggers and a couple of stoked-up-supermodel-types, he and Syl are probably among the very few in their early 20s. Krit thinks that he can use that to his advantage, "It'll be a piece-of-cake, Syl. I'm EXCELLENT at charming the more, uh, matured ladies. Particularly the old-maid types, which, as I can see, are in abundance here." He gives a dashing smile to a woman in her late 40s who is ordering wine across the bar. The woman blushes in return. Krit grins smugly. "Heck, I might as well pick their jewels while I'm at it."

Syl recognizes a challenge when she sees one. "Oh please, Krit. Once I'm through with these cradle-robbing old farts, they'll practically be handing over their cheque-books to me."

"Care to make a wager on that?"

"What? You want to play that game now?"

"Why the hell not? This party's boring as it is. Come on! It'll be fun. Person who gets most mementos from their victims at the end of the night… can get the loser to do anything he – or she – wishes."

"Oh, you're on, little boy!"

"Little boy?"

"I don't know what came over me."

"Right… You're still going down, Syl."

"Whatever… Hey, look, there's Maxie and Alec coming." Syl points to the entrance where the two newly-arrived trannies have just cleared the metal detectors.

"Oh, and there goes Fox." Krit watches as Riley Fox makes their way to welcome the two new guests. 

Riley Fox has taken care to welcome each new guest tonight. Krit decides that he doesn't really like Fox. The guy first comes across as a buffoon; like a guy who has way too much money without really knowing how to spend it and therefore squanders it on anything and everything. At the same time, though, Krit also feels like there's more to him than he's letting on. Not necessarily in a cruel and evil way, but you definitely don't hold on to your riches in the post-pulse world by being Johnny Clueless. 

Like when Fox greeted them earlier. Syl and Krit were ready with their cover: Krit is attending tonight as Richard 'Ricky' Moran III, the future heir of the very high-profile, yet extremely private, Moran family. They are mostly based in the East Coast, but Ricky seems to handle the family's business in the West Coast. Ricky also happens to be – believe it or not – a race car driver, who seems to spend a considerable amount of time in Monaco. Syl and Krit have confirmed that he is there at the moment, thus allowing Krit to assume his identity (Syl and Krit had snagged his invite while robbing his uninhabited penthouse in downtown Seattle). Syl is coming as Ricky's air-headed girlfriend, Lucy.

On the surface, Fox seemed to completely buy it. He didn't ask tricky questions and let them go after only five minutes. Yet, Krit can not help but feel that there was something in his eyes that told him that Fox knew more. He asked Syl about this afterwards and she apparently felt it too. They decided to maintain as minimal contact with Fox as possible in the party.

Still, Krit has full confidence that Maxie and Alec will hold their own in front of Fox. He averts his gaze from them back to Syl, "So you ready to pinch some of these nice rich folks?"

"As ready as you are, bro." She fixes back her mask (it is a Masquerade Ball after all).

He does the same and offers her his arm, "Shall we?"

She smiles, taking it, "We shall."

And together they make their way to a cluster of Rolexes and Cartiers on the balcony.

***

Apparently, Syl and Krit aren't the only ones who notice the arrival of Max and Alec.

In another part of the mansion, inside the surveillance room, Special Agent White observes the entrance of 452 and 494 through one of the many monitors linked to the security cameras. Both X5s are wearing masks (in consistent with the Halloween theme) and look considerably 'cleaner' than their day-to-day appearance, but to White, there is no mistaking that cocky, filthy transgenic exterior.

"All units, this is White. Subjects are on site, in the entrance hall. Be advised to hold your positions," he talks through his comm. link to the agents in the party, who are disguised as regular security guys. "Notify Fox of this development, but stress that IN NO WAY is he to reveal his knowledge."

Otto speaks up from behind him, "Sir, are you sure that you don't want to retrieve them now? What if they abort the heist?"

"Don't worry, Otto. They are too sure of themselves to cancel their plan." 

White watches as his agents let the two Transgenics through the metal detector, which actually doubles as a heat detector (it easily revealed the other two X5s who have come earlier). In another screen, he sees one agent whisper the information to Fox. Fox looks at the camera slightly before making his way toward 452 and 494.

White can not believe the utter stupidity of the transgenics. _Pulling a heist! I've given you too much credit, 452… He relishes at the prospect of obtaining the four X5s. Immediately, he plans to torture the other three to force 452 to tell him where his son is. _

From information obtained from his mole, it seems that 452 regards 701 and 471 – other '09 escapees – as her 'siblings'. White has never heard anything more ridiculous, but he figures that he can definitely use this to his advantage since 452 will hardly let either of them die. Perhaps he should start with 701, submitting her to a slow and painful death, before moving on to 471. Then, when that's over, he'll still have 494.

White has to admit that he underestimated 494. Not only did he avoid a certain explosion in his brainstem, but he also managed to gather force with 452, making her irritatingly harder to crush. White will definitely enjoy killing 494. From what he's gathered, 452 has also developed a certain bond – whatever that may be – with  494 and will unlikely let him die.

White laughs inwardly. _452 really amuses me with her sentimental attachments… _

Also, if this plan succeeds, then he needn't bother sending in his two carefully-trained assassins, which is all the more better, since he can hardly stand dealing with those X5s.

White observes 452 as she talks to Fox. _Enjoy the party, 452…_

***

Max can not believe how easy it is to pass security at the entrance. She and Alec only have to flash their invite and pass a metal detector before being let through. It is almost TOO easy… She does not have much time to ponder on this, however, since she immediately spots Riley Fox making his way to them.

Max adjusts the mask on her face and plasters on a smile. _Here we go…_

Riley Fox greets them with a simple nod, "Welcome to my Estate. I am your host, Riley Fox. And who might you be, lovely young lady?" He seizes one of Max's hands and bends down to kiss it.

To Max, Riley Fox looks like your average distinguished rich guy: in his late 50s, wearing nothing less than imported silk, and sporting a handlebar moustache. For such a rich guy though, Max is surprised to see that his toupee is just downright horrendous.

Alec apparently notices that too and chuckles in Max's ears, "Hey, check out the dead skunk on this guy's head."

"Alec!" In her haste, however, Max forgets to whisper. 

Though Fox does not seem to hear Alec's comment, he obviously heard hers. "Excuse me?"

"Uh… Aleccxxandra Cassidy. Very charmed to meet you, Mr. Fox." Max smiles at him charmingly to cover up that little hiccup.

"Ah, Ms. Cassidy… Of course! I recently had lunch with your stepson, Jonathan. I hope things are well between the two of you?"

Max has done a little digging on this Cassidy chick. Apparently, her life has been a gold digger's dream. A year ago, the struggling dancer scored big by marrying philanthropist Robert Cassidy… who also happened to be three times her age. Seven months into the marriage, Cassidy dropped dead from a stroke and left his entire estate, plus 51% of his company's shares, to his young new wife (much to his only son Jonathan's frustration). Suffice to say that things have not been cordial between the two. Lucky for Max though, Jonathan was prevented from attending tonight by an important meeting with a client in Mexico. And it seems that the young heiress prefers to enjoy her new gilded life in Europe, rendering her relatively unknown in Seattle (that is by face, not by name, since Robert Cassidy WAS a major player in the business world).

"Things are improving, Mr. Fox. It's not easy for him to lose a father that he so admires. He feels the need to blame someone."

"And yourself? It must be difficult to lose your husband after such a short marriage…"

Max puts on her sad voice, "Yes, it has been very hard. I really miss Robbie, but I know that he would have wanted me to continue on with my life." _Yeah, which must be hell easy, considering the amount of dough she got. "I've been managing quite well."_

"I heard that you just recently returned from Paris. I haven't had the chance to travel much this year. Tell me, how is the City of Lights?"

Max pretends to consider it, "Dazzling, Mr. Fox."

That seems to satisfy Fox. He turns to look at Alec and offers up his hand. "I'm sorry I didn't seem to catch your name. You are?"

Alec grins and shakes his hand, "Maxwell Kid. 'Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Fox."

"I don't believe to have heard of you, Mr. Kid. What kind of business are you involved in?"

"I would imagine you haven't, Mr. Fox. I mostly dabble in real estates, but primarily based in Europe. My company specializes in major estates, castles, and coast retreats. In fact, I happen to meet Ms. Cassidy when she was trying to sell her lovely beach house in Nice."_ 'Sounds believable enough, right? Alec feels his training – to expertly bullshit through his cover – kicking in. __Hey Manticore didn't spend their big bucks on me for nothing…_

"How did you get involved in that business, Mr. Kid?"

"Well, I've always had a passion for buildings and structures. Unfortunately, I never made it as an architect. Being a real estate agent was the next best thing."

"And you only operate in Europe?"

"I find that Europe still has the best architectures and also better market, Mr. Fox, especially after the pulse. This is actually the first time I've been back at the States in five years. It feels good to be home, though."

"Well, if you ever considered extending your franchise to the US, then don't hesitate to contact me. I may know a few connections that can help you get established."

"I appreciate that, Mr. Fox. And you know who to contact if you decided to sell this remarkable piece of property." Alec points to a prominent structure in the foyer, "Venetian columns, 16th century? Beautiful choice."

"Certainly, Mr. Kid. Now, I must ask you two to excuse me. I need to greet some new guests. It has really been my pleasure to meet you and do enjoy the party."

"Thank you," Max and Alec answer simultaneously. They watch as Fox makes his way to welcome the new guests: a married couple in their 30s, who look like they're in the legal professions.

Max pulls up her mask slightly as she turns to look at Alec, "Maxwell Kid? What the hell kind of name is that?"

"What? I figure, since you took my name, why not I take yours?"

"I didn't take your name. Her name is Alex, smart-ass." She rolls her eyes at him. "No, I meant, what the hell kind of last name is 'Kid'?"

"Butch and Sundance, Max!"

"Who and what-dance?"

"Oh come on! Don't tell me… Butch CASSIDY and the Sundance KID? Famous western outlaws, robbed stuff mostly, CLASSIC pre-pulse movie…  Any of these ring a bell?"

"What the hell are you on about?"

"Oh come on, Max. You've had ten years ahead of me! Don't tell me you've never heard of them." At Max's blank look, Alec tsks, "'Gotta say that I'm disappointed, Maxie. You could be a little more culturally-informed…"

"I'm sorry that my cultural knowledge isn't to your satisfaction, Alec, but some people do have some better things to do than watch movies… Like, you know, make a living? Have a job?"

"I'm just sayin' that it's nice to have your cultural references appreciated once in a while. Makes you feel more clever and all, you know?" He smirks at her but is only given a pout in return. _Hmm, tough crowd.__ "But speaking of making a living… What say you we look for those marks, huh?"_

Max pulls her mask back and starts to walk away from him, "Whatever. Just don't get on my hair tonight. I've got enough with playing stupid gold digger without you busting my chops for looney-disney reference…"

Alec catches up to her. "That was a nice touch by the way, 'I really miss Robbie…' You totally won the old guy's heart."

Max shoves him in the shoulders, "Shut up."

"Manners, Maxie. Remember, you're supposed to be a prim and proper socialite tonight."

"Well this prim and proper socialite will politely kick your butt if you don't shut your trap."

"Alright… Geez!" Alec takes a look around the room, "You seen Syl and Krit?"

"Yeah, they're over there in the balcony." Max watches as Syl giggles against a particularly large gentleman – easily lifting his gold fountain pen – while Krit seems to hold the attention – and the diamond-encrusted hand – of a slightly-more-than-tipsy middle age woman. Max can not help but feel amused. That's her siblings!

"Well, better left them to their devices, huh? So where do you want to start?"

"The Ballroom, I guess. Judging by this guy's décor, he doesn't seem the type to hide his goodies in a safe. So our marks will most probably be in plain view."

"Lead the way."

***

Little do they know that Fox and presumably three dozens pairs of eyes, including White's, are following their every move…

A/N: Alrighty, what do you guys think of their cover stories? Basically I just bullshit my way through all that. I have no knowledge of architecture whatsoever, so I have no clue what a Venetian column is. And, does the name 'Ricky Moran' (Krit's cover) familiar to anyone? Coz it does to me, but I can't remember where it's from. So yeah, not trying to infringe on anyone's copyright… And since the start of this story, I've always had this idea of Max and Alec switching names during a job. Thought it'd be amusing.

Um, I know that nothing terribly exciting's happening in this chapter, but I promise that something very interesting will happen in the next one (Logan will definitely in it if that helps. Ha ha). Anyway, what do you think of Fox? To tell you the truth, I had a hard time writing a proper rich guy's speech. And White? I know that his thoughts are so villain-cliché, but I can't seem to write him any other way. Syl & Krit? Otto? That poor woman Krit's going to rob?  Tell me what you think!


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